The major music group Universal Music Group (UMG) threatens to remove its music from well-known pop stars such as Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga from the popular video app TikTok.
The company has not yet agreed to extend a licensing deal with TikTok that expires on Wednesday.
According to UMG, TikTok is not prepared to pay fairly for the music rights and would pressure TikTok to conclude an unfavourable deal.
TikTok is also said to create music on its platform through artificial intelligence, replacing real artists with AI. The record label also states that TikTok does not do enough to combat the illegal copying of music.
TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has over 1 billion users, and they often post music under their videos, including from artists managed by UMG.
