The conflict between Universal and TikTok shakes the music consumption mannequin | Culture | EUROtoday

The success of the Galician singer Íñigo Quintero can’t be understood with out TikTok. His ballad If you aren’t It offered a soundtrack for weeks to hundreds of romantic movies on the Chinese social community; He then made the bounce to Spotify, the place with a million-dollar fan base in his pocket, he topped the listing of essentially the most listened to worldwide. The TikTok springboard can be chargeable for selling hits by massive stars like Rosalía, Taylor Swift, Aitana or Harry Styles. But this manner of succeeding is disappearing lately for a lot of artists. The open conflict between two main gamers within the music trade—essentially the most highly effective report firm, Universal Music, and TikTok, the social community the place present successes are fueled—is more and more getting harder. A month in the past, the corporate, which owns a 3rd of the world's music, eliminated a few of its songs from the social community; Now, he needs to delete all of them. Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift and Rosalía are a few of these affected. The motive for the dispute is the proportion of cash for copyrights. This conflict is coming good to 3rd events: a part of the success of Beyoncé's nation track, Texas Hold Em’, It is as a result of his report firm, Sony, does have an settlement with TikTok, a social community that is filled with movies with tiktokers dancing to the diva's new track.

Currently, multinational report corporations base their enterprise on receiving hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from streaming platforms. streaming resembling Spotify, Apple, YouTube Music or Amazon Music. Negotiations of those contracts are tough, however an settlement is finally reached. It is the primary time that Universal has gone to this point and ordered its music to be faraway from a digital platform. The determination units a precedent that may have an effect on the negotiations of multinationals with different platforms, particularly with Spotify, essentially the most listened to. It is an outdated struggle for percentages: each report corporations and artists demand an even bigger piece of the pie from Spotify. On the opposite hand, it’s already an insistent rumor within the sector that inside TikTok's plans is to arrange a platform for streaming to compete with Spotify.

Meetings between TikTok and Universal started a yr in the past, when the contract expired. Since then they haven’t agreed and tensions elevated when, a month in the past, Universal deleted a part of its catalog from TikTok. For tomorrow, Monday, the wager has been raised: it can additionally delete the songs whose copyright belongs to Universal. Songs have two copyrights: recording rights (the album) and authorship rights (the rating and lyrics). It is quite common that the holder of those copyrights doesn’t coincide. An instance: Desperate, by Rosalía, is recorded with Sony, however the editorial rights belong to Universal, so the Catalan's success can be faraway from TikTok.

But it doesn't simply have an effect on the large names. We see the case of the Spanish group Veintiuno. Their report label is Warner Music, however the authorship is signed with the Universal publishing home. In one week, half of their movies have been silenced and, given the chance that the quantity will enhance, the group has counterattacked with humor by importing a each day gossip “until they send us a hitman.”

The info that Veintiuno from Toledo has is that the choice to delete their songs comes from the social community, they perceive that in order that these affected develop up and begin placing stress on the report firm. From TikTok they guarantee that they observe Universal's request and deny these statements. In the top, Diego Arroyo, its vocalist, laments to this newspaper: “The war between companies that generate billions of euros of profit per year is negatively affecting a huge mass of workers who are only trying to get ahead in an ecosystem that is already “In itself it is hostile.”

According to Financial Times, TikTok may lose 60% to 80% of its music. Although from the application they assure that the percentage is not that high, their executives have been in contact repeatedly with Universal since the measure was applied to try to reach an agreement. TikTok has become a basic channel in the launch and growth strategy of commercial songs. Bloody Mary, by Lady Gaga, was the most listened to in December 2022, although the song was published in 2011. Why did people listen to a song from eleven years ago again? A TikTok user uploaded a video of the series Wednesday, from Netflix, in which the protagonist's movements in a scene matched the music and that boosted views. It is these profiles that, by creating or replicating the choreography of others, establish trends to transform them into viral ones.

It is estimated that 67% of social network users search for songs on social media platforms. streaming after listening to them on TikTok, according to a study carried out by the music analysis company MRC Data; and double the number of active Spotify profiles worldwide. The data is not enough for Universal, which demands greater remuneration for its artists – they claim that what TikTok offers is less than the 20% they receive from other platforms -, more protection against artificial intelligence and tougher rules against hate on networks. From TikTok they refer to a statement in which they have expressed disappointment with the record company's decision, but that it is Universal that loses “the free promotion” provided by the platform.

Although this newspaper has not received any response from Universal, in the open letter they published a month ago, the company assures that the benefits they obtain from the social network do not exceed 1% of their total income. What the record company does not make clear is what the indirect results are due to the virality that TikTok provides. A fact provided by the consulting firm Midia Research: 26% of young people between 20 and 24 years old attend concerts by artists they have discovered through viral videos.

In this power war, the collateral damage has a name: the users, especially those who use networks as a business, also called tiktokers. They have created the choreographies that have helped the songs go around the world and their only recognition is 14 euros for every million visits, according to Alejandro Chentsov (Sebastopol, 42 years old) to this newspaper. He and his daughter Arina (kyiv, 14) live in Huelva and created the song dance Desperate, by Rosalía. The artist premiered the song in a concert before even releasing the studio version. The day after the concert, Alejandro and his daughter performed a choreography with the music of Desperate and virality caught on. “Baby, don't call me…”, these 4 phrases made a part of the TikTok neighborhood dance and so they even managed to leap from the screens to the nightclubs, the place younger folks recreated their steps. After her success on TikTok, Rosalía formally printed Desperate.

“At that time it would have been worth it to meet Rosalía in person, but now, cold, we think that she has won a lot and we have not received even a greeting,” Chentsov complains to this newspaper. Chentsov is upset, as a result of throughout all this time there are artists who’ve shared their choreographies and have succeeded with out giving them credit and now their songs are deleted as a result of conflict between TikTok and Universal. “They haven't thought about us. In the end, what we do is also a job, which helps them, and they are not recognizing it,” he explains. Your video of Desperate provides 3.3 million views.

The solely effort that corporations must make to have this promoting is so as to add the identify of the creator of the steps within the video that the singer uploads to TikTok to respect their copyright. Without investing cash. This means everybody wins: the artists make their track viral; los tiktokers they get recognition, views and followers; and the social community is the middleman, whose perform is to make sure compliance with copyright and mental property legal guidelines, and advantages from the efforts of the earlier two. This tacit settlement is what the lawyer specialised on this discipline Rocío González believes “does not make the hare spring” and causes complaints. “All actors must ask each other for permission to use the artistic creations of others and must make their authorship clear to obtain an economic return. But since everyone gains a benefit from the rest, no one takes the first step,” says the lawyer. Although he tiktoker and choreographer Sergio Poveda (Valencia, 21) factors on to TikTok: “It may be exciting that your idol quotes you, but that doesn't feed you. The app profits from our work and they should recognize it better.”

Sergio Poveda (Valencia, 21 years outdated) and two pals put the rhythm to the Bizarrap session with Shakira. The Colombian uploaded a video with the choreography of those three pals and it was shared by hundreds of customers, however with out crediting the authors. It is the most typical factor: few artists give recognition to the creators as a result of it’s typically an costly job to seek out who was the primary to bop to their track. The tiktoker Nadia Vilaplana (Valencia, 18 years outdated) explains to EL PAÍS an answer that they’ll use to let folks know that the dance is yours, however that now with the information from Universal it turns into a again door by means of which the report firm's music will be sneaked in : “You can upload a video with your own audio [música de un equipo de música de fondo] and that song becomes a sound that everyone can use and that everyone can name whatever they want.”

By leaving TikTok, what Universal goes to lose is virality, however it could acquire credibility, as a result of the social community has modified the way in which of composing, focusing all efforts on reaching 15 highly effective seconds that seize the eye of customers, “although then the rest of the song is shit,” jokes Biscayan singer Paula Mattheus. For her, virality is an element that Universal artists can afford to lose because most of them are already established. “What makes this decision dangerous is that it serves as a precedent,” she says. Many emerging artists like her or Íñigo Quintero have seen her career grow exponentially thanks to TikTok. Only the success of If you are not He put the name of his composer on everyone's lips. “It's not the end of the world, emerging singers existed before TikTok and will continue to grow after TikTok,” concludes Mattheus.

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