Universal Music Group is to pull its music from TikTok over pay disparity and AI concerns.
The music label - which is home to the likes of Taylor Swift and Drake - has fallen out with the video-sharing app owned by Chinese firm ByteDance and is yet to agree new terms after their licensing agreement ended on January 31.
UMG raised issues about "appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok's users."
It claimed that only 1 per cent of its revenue comes from TikTok, despite social media site's "massive and growing user base, rapidly rising advertising revenue and increasing reliance on music-based content."
UMG is concerned about TikTok posting too much AI-generated content and accused them of "demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI."
The label has called out their alleged "bully" tactics, claiming they removed rising artists from their roster's music and that they tried to flog UMG a deal lower than before despite TikTok's "exponential growth".
UMG said: "When we proposed that TikTok takes similar steps as our other platform partners to try to address these issues, it responded first with indifference, and then with intimidation.
"As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth. How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars."
Firing back, TikTok - which inked a licensing deal with Warner Music Group last year - said: "It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.
"Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent."
