It wasn’t long after Universal Music Group’s songs left TikTok that many users heard creator Jarred Jermaine’s voice for the first time.
Jermaine is known for his TikTok videos that showcase the evolution of song interpolations, compare versions of the same song, and rank artists’ discographies—usually letting the music speak for itself. After TikTok’s licensing agreement with UMG expired in early February and the company’s music was pulled from the platform, his account was suddenly full of muted posts, which led him to speak up—in a fake-crying voice—to ask UMG to “please, put Taylor Swift back on the platform.
“At first, I thought it wouldn’t be too bad, but as time has progressed, I see how much it has definitely affected me as a music creator because UMG owns a lot of songs,” Jermaine told Marketing Brew. “Sometimes there are songs I want to use, and I can’t even upload that video because I didn’t know that it was a UMG artist.”
Due to the lapsed agreement—and the failure to come to a new one, which UMG said was due in part to royalty payouts and AI-generated music on the platform— songs from big-name UMG artists like Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, Lady Gaga, and The Weeknd are no longer available for use on TikTok (although there appear to be some exceptions). As some marketers wait to see the long-term effects of the changes, some creators say they are already feeling the squeeze—and are finding workarounds to keep audiences engaged.
Everybody on mute
Over the last two months, Jermaine said he’s been dealing with TikTok videos being muted daily, which has financial implications for him, as he loses the ability to monetize some of his content.
“I don’t fully rely on it, but it’s a big source of income,” he said. “I am taking the hit a little bit.”
He’s been trying to keep spirits high, making jokes about muted UMG songs and royalty-free music while continuing to post his typical content on TikTok. He’s also been experimenting more with other platforms like YouTube and Instagram, he said, and showcasing indie artists, knowing that those videos might not blow up as much as ones featuring more popular songs.
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“I think some people think, ‘Oh my gosh, his career is almost over because they banned a couple songs,’ but I could make videos on any song,” he said. “I just choose to focus more on larger songs.”
TikToker Kasey Gelsomino, who operates a music review channel called “Kasey’s Playlist,” said the removal of UMG music has also affected the kind of content she can post.
“I very rarely am able to use an official sound nowadays,” she said. “It's pretty hard to find official sounds that are still up, and those that are still up are largely sped-up sounds.”
Go big, or go home?
Some smaller artists whose music is distributed by the juggernaut have also been affected by the fallout.
One such artist, Grace Gardner, told Marketing Brew that she’s had some difficulty promoting her music on TikTok. Her music was mostly removed from TikTok, outside of a few songs that weren’t distributed by UMG, she said. Gardener was poised to release an EP around the time TikTok’s agreement with UMG expired, so her promotional campaign for it was stifled, she said.
“I wasn’t able to post any workarounds or anything that didn’t compromise the integrity of the track,” she said. “I was posting sped-up and slowed-down versions, and versions of it that were not quite the quality of the master. I felt a little bit slighted and weird about it.”
Since UMG pulled her music from TikTok, no one from either UMG or TikTok has reached out to her, Gardner told us.
Late last year, Universal introduced a Music for Creators program, which gives creators access to certain pre-cleared songs to use in their content for a monthly fee. If UMG were to reach out to Jermaine about joining the program, he said he might consider it, but he’d “rather just wait it out” and “see what happens” with the licensing dispute.
“I hope they can work things out because it’s affecting a lot of people,” he said.