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What Is the Value of Music for TikTok?
The collapse in negotiations between Merlin and TikTok raises questions around how big a role music plays in TikTok's business, and what to pay.
Everyone from stars like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Drake and the Weeknd, down to small artists signed to labels using UMG distributor Virgin, were removed from the platform overnight. Some ended up striking direct deals with the platform or finding contractual workarounds to skirt the ban, and the final nail in the coffin seemingly came when Taylor Swift’s catalog suddenly came back to TikTok on April 11 —– complete with a special campaign around her then-upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department. Optically, it’s one thing for TikTok to stand up to the biggest music company in the world and argue that UMG had put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters” in an attempt to lower the rates it had to pay the label.
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