Music’s largest on-again, off-again relationship simply took a flip for the ugly, as Common Music Group is pulling its music off TikTok. We now have seen this film earlier than: Each time the music business negotiates licenses with social platforms, the battle boils all the way down to a query of who wants the opposite extra. TikTok says it’s providing a “free promotional and discovery” automobile that artists can’t afford to lose. UMG says TikTok wouldn’t exist with out music and, this time, is eager to show it. However this story additionally comes with new twists within the outdated “worth hole” debate.

The “worth hole” widens

The distinction this time is that TikTok is about way more than advertising and marketing. It’s turning into a type of music consumption in its personal proper, and one which competes extra instantly than ever with time spent streaming music. It’s turning into more and more tough for TikTok to say that publicity is fee sufficient. That is the so-called “worth hole” between the excessive quantity of music exercise on social platforms and their comparatively low contributions to music business income. This debate started with YouTube, is at present about TikTok, and units the tone for the longer term. As social video continues to develop and represent its personal type of consumption — to not point out turning into an area for fan remixing and re-creation — the worth hole is widening. Ought to fan remixes, use of vocal fashions, and different rising use circumstances actually be categorised as publicity? 

The home all the time wins (or does it?)

The irony is that UMG will get what it desires whether or not TikTok concedes or not. The corporate’s grand plan to reassert management over a altering music business is turning into clearer. Its new licensing regime, whereas purportedly “artist-centric,” is absolutely about managing the influence of the fast-growing long-tail and the streaming subscription slowdown. Whether or not intentional or not, it can transfer a brand new technology of music creators to focus a bit much less of their time and vitality on streaming, as a substitute driving them to TikTok and different user-generated content material platforms the place they’ll work together instantly with their followers. Over time, this turns streaming platforms into hubs for the institution whereas social platforms change into hubs for independents, long-tail creators, and their followers to “play”. UMG now eradicating its music from TikTok solely widens the wedge, separating UMG and different major-label artists from the remainder of the business. So, even when TikTok doesn’t cave, UMG will get what it desires: to attract a line within the sand.

There’s a value to this strategy. Platforms comparable to TikTok are more and more the areas the place fandom and cultural capital are constructed, and the place new generations devour and create music. UMG clearly recognises this, as it’s why they’re looking for to extract higher worth from TikTok within the first place. If UMG’s absence from TikTok is extended, its present roster of stars will most likely be superb. Nonetheless, by eradicating itself from the pack, the corporate dangers falling out of sync with the subsequent technology of artists and their followers.

Artists are the collateral harm

The unhappy reality is that artists and songwriters aren’t any higher off. Simply as with streaming, more cash from TikTok might end in significant income for UMG, however nonetheless solely measly funds for particular person artists and songwriters (particularly if funds proceed to be made as lump sums slightly than on a per-stream foundation). Furthermore, whereas UMG’s superstars might be superb, its smaller, maybe newly-signed artists simply misplaced an important promotion and discovery platform. As Future Music Coalition identified, the battle doesn’t bode nicely for independents both: “If UMG can’t get a good deal, what hope do indie artists have?” It’s clear that artists and songwriters usually are not receiving sufficient for the usage of their music on each streaming and social media platforms. However make no mistake, the initiatives to this point are doing way more for the businesses in cost than for the creators themselves.