Author |Ding Qianwen Editor|Fan Zhihui
Since the global ** and TikTok tore their faces last month, TikTok's ** circle ecology is also changing.
In early February, the Universal ** Group (UMG) removed about 3 million songs with recording rights from TikTok, and on March 1, the Global ** Copyright Management Group (UMPG) officially removed nearly 4 million of its ** songs. At that time, the works of artists such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber will be completely deleted on TikTok, and the interface of the works will be reset to zero with one click.
In this torn game between the two giants, who is more injured? And how will it affect the current ** ecology?
Looking back at the public statements released by Universal** and TikTok in the past month, the contradiction between the two is already tense.
Obviously, as a social platform with more than 1 billion users, TikTok is not only responsible for simple social functions, but also has a profound impact on the industry in terms of publicity and promotion.
For example, in 2023, more than half of the top lists of the Billboard Hot 100 list will be affected by the popularity of TikTok, and the TikTok Billboard Top 50 list, which is based on user participation, is also a major vane that affects the spread of people's works.
It is not difficult to see that the tough approach of Universal** and TikTok may obviously seriously affect the publicity rhythm and communication strategy of many Universal** artists.
For example, Cody Fry, an artist under Universal**, posted a short ** on TikTok saying that she feels "like a person standing between two colliding planets". As the first person to get TikTok's viral distribution dividend, as early as 2021, Cody Fry's work "I Hear a Symphony" became popular on TikTok.
Recently, Cody Fry and Abby Cates collaborated on "Things You Said" is also on TikTok and Douyin, and it is widely used by Douyin users as a BGM with a sense of fate. He believes that even though he is not aware of the negotiation between the two companies, as a ** person, he is "still frustrated with this way of handling".
Similarly, after losing the blessing of TikTok's viral effect, more and more songwriters and artists under the umbrella of Global ** or supernumerary cooperation may become the most direct "victims".
For example, even though Dua Lipa is affiliated with Warner**, its songs such as "Houdini" and "Training Season" are written by Danny L Harle, a producer currently signed by Universal**, and these works will also be affected by the takedown; In addition, Taylor Swift, which is about to release a new ** in April, will also face the lack of a strong channel to reach a global audience.
For example, the lesser-known artists are facing a more grim situation, such as Conan Gray, who once became popular on TikTok with a song "Heather", lamented, "At this rate, I will never have a hit song again, my career will definitely be over."
Singer Mareux, who has gone from obscurity to the Coachella stage with the help of TikTok, mentioned in an interview with "TMZ" that integrating **people** into TikTok is a good marketing method, "TikTok's **can change** people's careers, although **people don't make a lot of money directly from TikTok, but the generated ** will help **people make money in different ways." ”
He also believes that the ending of the split between Universal and TikTok may also affect the people to get new income from TikTok, and if Universal really cares about their people, they should improve their contracts instead of destroying their unlimited opportunities on TikTok.
Based on this, some people believe that in addition to Universal**, TikTok should also pay more attention to **, so as to solve the differences between the two leading companies, rather than hastily deleting **works at the expense of **people.
Of course, with the removal of UMG and UMPG's **, although the time period is not long enough, TikTok will inevitably be affected by the lack of copyright.
A number of industry sources generally believe thatThe disappearance of Universal**'s music library will affect 60% to 80% of TikTok's music library**. However, TikTok also categorically denied this, claiming"In the US and UK, UMG (Global**) and UMPG together account for about 30% of the popularity ** on the platform, with less so elsewhere".
There is no doubt that the power of Universal** as the world's largest **copyright owner is huge, according to IFPI's recently released list of the top 10 best-selling artists in the world in 2023, Taylor Swift, Seventeen, Stray Kids, Drake, The Weeknd, Morgan Wallen, Tomorrow X Together, New Jeans, Lana del Rey 9 groups of artists** Both are released by Universal**, and the only artist Bad Bunny who does not have a record deal with Universal** is published by UMPG**.
It can be said that Global ** undoubtedly controls most of the popular ** copyrights in the global music scene.
Relevant data shows that the decline of 3 million songs owned by Universal** in the recording rights has had a certain impact on TikTok. At the end of last month, Michael Nash, executive vice president and chief digital officer of Universal, cited Apptopia data, showing that the total time spent on TikTok in late February was slightly lower than the same period last year.
In addition, not only the ** people and the platform itself have been affected to a certain extent, but the operation of removing the copyright has also caused a large number of TikTok bloggers and ordinary users to have to "mute" the ** released.
After all, even if the songwriters of Universal** participate in a few passages of a song, there is also the possibility that the entire song will be taken off the shelves, which also involves the cooperation tracks of other artists such as Sony ** and Warner**, which makes many TikTok creators face the risk that their past creations**, especially their masterpieces**, may be removed from the shelves.
For example, Sophia Romano, a TikTok blogger who recently used "Fluffing A Duck" to oppose the removal of the copyright of Universal**, mentioned in an interview with BI that it may not be appropriate to replace the past ** with others**, and she must also reconsider some of the ** ideas that have been designed, "I think 75% of ** will contain songs under Universal**, it has so many talented and well-known **people, and it can't integrate the people you like and ** into ** , this is not only difficult, but also sad".
In this battle of platforms, the stakes and the cost of Universal** and TikTok are huge. And the gods fight, the pond fish, ** people and TikTok users have also become direct victims.
With the copyright war between the two giants, an insider from TikTok told "Variety" that in the past month, even though Universal** has been removed from the shelves one after another, the number of TikTok users has not decreased.
Interestingly, **Xiansheng noticed that due to the lack of hit songs, many TikTok creators were dissatisfied with the practice of Universal**. Among them, with the release of blogger Niana Guerrero using "Flutting A Duck" as BGM's original dance ** to satirize the world**, this funny and funny** not only received more than 14 million likes, 104.7 billion times**, which also made Kevin Macleod's "Fluffing A Duck" released in 2014 set off a **craze on TikTok and became a hit at the moment.
And Taylor Swift's Taylor Swift remix** with "Fluffing A Duck" as BGMT produced by Taylor Swift fan blogger "W4Ybright", who has more than 500,000 followers on TikTok, also spread wildly in a playful atmosphere, and was seen as a "mute" in response to Universal**
Under the influence of "Fluffing A Duck", more and more TikTok bloggers, especially those in the dance area, began to seek to "save themselves" through other BGMs in order to retain the existing fan traffic. Dancer and content creator blogger Lars Gummer said in an interview with Daily Beast that "we are outraged by the decision between Universal** and TikTok", but most creators like him are also starting to look for new creative BGMs.
On the one hand, in addition to the large-scale release of short songs without the original song BGM such as silent dancing and silent lip-syncing, there has also been a craze that has driven musical instrument adaptations, free **, classical**, and meme-like "cappella adaptations" to become the current popular trend; On the other hand, the works of Warner**, Sony** and Indie are also being used more and more frequently.
For example, TikTok blogger Wendyskin used a clip of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" with her boyfriend as a BGM to record her trip to Japan, and she wrote in the caption, "When we had to sing this song, Universal ** took this song away."
What's more, like blogger Niana Guerrero, is looking for free ** as BGM, which has also prompted more and more free songs to become popular on TikTok, and at the same time, it has also given rise to more and more diverse and even spoof remix BGM. For example, Nintendo's "Wii Music" has become the new favorite of TikTok users to fill the missing music library because it is free to use; There is even a "rubbing" behavior of TikTok users by making "own versions" of the works of the global ** brand for the use of users on the site.
For example, blogger Stephanie produced Taylor Swift's classic track "Out of the Woods", which uses a combination of frying pans, toys, a cappella singing and various special effects, which has also been viewed more than 600,000 times. Not only that, Taylor Swift's representative works such as "Anti-Hero" and "Cruel Summer" have also been adapted by Stephanie in the form of a second creation.
In addition, many independent ** people who are active on TikTok and ** people who are not part of the three major record systems believe that this change may be an opportunity for them. For example, KTLYN, a rapper with more than 2.4 million followers on TikTok and an average of 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, pointed out that "this is the opportunity for independent **people".
And many independent ** people have also taken advantage of the trend to rub up the traffic, and comprehensively use the labels of "indieartist" and "umg" to gain the attention of users. For example, Shane Niemi, an independent **person who became popular on TikTok with "Maybe My Soulmate Died" and gained more than 97 million streaming media on Spotify, uploaded her ** to TikTok after the copyright notice was released on Universal**, and mentioned in the title "You need TikTok's**, because Universal** has lost your favorite".
However, it is worth noting that although Universal ** has removed the copyright of the original song of its works, the variable speed version, spoof or cover fragments processed by Erchuang can still be used on TikTok. And these processed versions also evade automatic detection and deletion to a certain extent, making TikTok's piracy economy equally violent.
According to a new study that monitors and analyzes digital service PEX, TikTok is the most modified audio of all major UGC platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. pex estimates,As of 2023, more than a third ( 38.) of all songs found on TikTok are full03%). Not only that, but PEX also pointed out that the proportion of tracks that have been modified on TikTok has increased from 24 in 202255% rises to 38 in 202303%, which continues to increase.
It can be seen that it is far from enough for Universal** to only remove the copyright of the original song, if piracy is allowed to run rampant, the loss will be greater, which is undoubtedly a loss to the wife and a soldier.
In addition, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has been making a layout in the field of AI**, and after acquiring Jukedeck in July 2019, it has also successively launched the machine learning-driven production application MAWF, the creation application "Sponge Band", and the creation tool Ripple. This series of actions that may reduce the copyright share of human artists are all seen by the copyright giants led by Global **, but there is no good way to stop it, and now they can only start from the distribution of benefits.
It is undeniable that Universal** has indeed lost the most powerful platform it can now promote and promote its **, as well as any royalties and derivative income that should have been generated on that platform**. In the short term, the problem facing the world** will be more serious than TikTok, which can still save itself by losing its copyright. After all, as shown by MRC data, TikTok has become a platform for 75% of users to discover new ** people in 2021.
But in the long run, Universal** and TikTok are tough, which is a good thing for creators, and they will exchange a tougher attitude for a larger revenue share in the future. Because of this, Universal** has also received support from some record labels.
President and CEO of A2IM, DrRichard James Burgess has publicly stated that the industry's folly lies in sacrificing the basic income of recording for the sake of promotion, or discoverability: "It has made a significant contribution to the platform's user growth and user engagement, and yet, this investment in the industry has not received a fair financial return. In an industry where the salaries of artists and record labels are systematically low, TikTok's payment method has a unique disadvantage. ”
The battle between Universal** and TikTok is a lose-lose battle after all.
This also can't help but remind people that as early as the millennium, YouTube and Warner** also had a similar controversy, and Warner** also deleted its **works from YouTube and "muted" them for several months, and finally ended in reconciliation. Interestingly, after TikTok's conflict with Universal** became public, YouTube introduced a feature that allowed users to add and make remixes***, which was also seen as a public cry with TikTok to entice users to migrate.
But in the final analysis, even if it seems that TikTok still has a way to make up for the missing copyright at the moment, the listing of global ** copyright will inevitably be one of the main tasks in the later stage.
After all, TikTok still has to face how to provide users with the content they need, and the global ** copyright, which has a large number of popular copyrights, is still just needed by users. And this also means that there is no eternal enemy, when the interests are in line and the conditions are negotiated, reconciliation is only a matter of time before it is resolved, and the copyright only needs to be slowly returned.
The source of this article is the network, such as the infringement contact deletion.
Typography | a