- Taylor Swift has put her music back on TikTok, undermining UMG's attempts to keep her off the platform.
- Swift's copyright agreement with UMG gives her control over where her music is available.
- Her move has been celebrated by fans and highlights the influence she has on the music industry.
The return of Taylor Swift's music to TikTok undermines her record label's efforts to keep its music off the social media platform.
Swift is the only Universal Music Group artist who has been able to make her music available to TikTok users amid an ongoing dispute between the music publisher and the social media platform. Most of the pop sensation's songs returned to TikTok on Thursday, a week before she released her new album.
Swift owns the copyright to some of her albums as part of the deal she signed with UMG in 2018. This will give her control over where her work is available, unlike other UMG artists whose music is still removed from TikTok.
The move is another example of the power Swift has in owning her music. She re-recorded six of her albums after her rights were sold to a private equity firm by her powerful music manager, Scooter Braun, with whom she had a feud over her own music catalog.
Representatives for UMG and Swift did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment sent outside of normal business hours.
The news that Swift's music would be returning to TikTok was celebrated by fans and TikTok creators, many of whom said Thursday they were surprised to be able to use her music. Many of these fans are also anticipating songs from Swift's new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which will be released on April 19th.
UMG ordered TikTok to mute its songs on January 31 after the two companies failed to negotiate on artist royalties and the use of AI on the platform. The controversy has not spread to other major labels like Sony or Warner Music Group, which renewed a multi-year licensing agreement with TikTok in July.
“TikTok wants you to think that because it's giving artists 'free promotion' that they should be grateful for, they don't have to pay them fairly. What they don't tell you is that they're worth tens of billions of dollars. “We're making money from artists' work,” a UMG representative told BI in February.
Swift's latest endeavor highlights just how much influence she has in the industry. Last year, she reached billionaire status, became the first artist to win the Grammy Award for “Album of the Year” four times, and boosted economies around the world with her Elas Tour. .
In 2014, Swift removed her music from Spotify, citing concerns about the streaming giant's “freemium” business model. She revived her music in 2017 after several attempts by the platform's CEO to convince her of the importance of streaming.
