After 10 weeks of absence, Taylor Swift’s songs are again available on the Chinese platform TikTok, which nevertheless remains at odds with Universal Music Group.
On Thursday morning, TikTok users could once again incorporate Taylor Swift songs into their videos, including You Belong With Me, Cruel Summer, Style And Me!.
TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) have not renewed a deal since a licensing agreement expired on January 31. The failure of negotiations led in February to the removal of all titles recorded under the UMG license from TikTok’s library. The immense repertoire includes, among others, songs by Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, The Beatles, Kendrick Lamar, U2 and Bob Dylan.
Why are Taylor Swift songs making a comeback? We don’t know it at the moment, but this about-face comes eight days before the release of his next album, The Tortured Poets Department. According to the magazine Varietyit is likely that the singer, who owns the rights to her recordings, has concluded her own arrangement with the Chinese group ByteDance, owner of the popular platform.
According to Universal, negotiations with TikTok are stumbling on several points: remuneration for artists, online security for users and protection against the dangers linked to artificial intelligence.