The reason came down to money – and how it was shared

Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd and Olivia Rodrigo are amongst a host of stars who have had their music catalogs removed from TikTokafter negotiations to renew licensing agreements broke down.

The reason came down to money – and how it was shared.

A licensing agreement between TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG), which represented the performers expired on Wednesday, and a new deal could not be reached, the BBC reports.

UMG, the world’s largest record label,  said China-owned TikTok wanted to pay a “fraction” of the rate other social media sites do for access to its songs while TikTok accused UMG of presenting a “false narrative and rhetoric.”

The music company previously reached a deal with TikTok in February 2021, which allowed users on the app to be able to incorporate clips from its music catalogue in their videos.

Now, UMG-owned music that features in TikTok videos will be muted on the video sharing site, and users looking to replace the removed tracks will need to select alternative options from other music labels.

Some artists such as Ariana Grande and Katy Perry have had most of their music disappear from their official pages, except a few songs which are on other labels.

Billie Eilish, another UMG artist, has had all but one of her songs taken down, the BBC report noted.

Her song What Was I Made For? was featured in the Barbie movie – whose soundtrack was published by Warner Music Group.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor, which became a viral hit after appearing in the film Saltburn, is also unavailable.

Unofficial, sped-up and slowed-down versions of tracks are still available to use.

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Despite it having more than one billion users, it accounts for one percent of Universal’s total revenue, the label said.

Universal’s rival Warner Music agreed a licensing deal with TikTok in July 2023.

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Mike Lee rips into Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over harmful effects of social media on youth

Sen. Mike Lee fired back at the Meta CEO with revealed findings that social media is harmful to the youth due to related factors

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced backlash on Wednesday after stating that there is no link between social media use and the impact it has on teens’ mental health.

The Big Tech mogul cited a report to back up his claims but failed to cite further evidence from the same report which suggested that adolescents who use social media do have an increase in mental health issues due to factors related to its use.

The testimony came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on efforts to stop sexual abuse content on social media. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah was quick to fight back against Zuckerberg’s assertations.

“With so much of our lives spent on mobile devices and social media, it’s important to look into the effects on teen mental health and well-being. I take this very seriously,” said Zuckerberg.

“Mental health is a complex issue, and the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes,” he added.

During Sen. Mike Lee’s questioning, he fired back at the Meta CEO about sexually explicit material being available to minors on platforms such as Instagram during the hearing.

“At today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with social media CEOs, Mark Zuckerberg just cited a report saying that research doesn’t prove that social media causes changes in kids’ mental health,” Lee further argued on X.

The same report contained the following observation: “Research suggests the harms of social media use can include encouraging young people to engage in unhealthy social comparisons and displacing time that could be given to sleep, exercise, studying, or other activities. Social media’s distracting power can work against an adolescent’s ability to sustain attention, a skill necessary for academic success and emotional adjustment. Some young people can also develop a dysfunctional need to use online games, which is related to anxiety and depression. It is possible that dysfunctional social media use may pose a similar problem.”

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