Taylor Swift’s Music Returns to TikTok, Despite App’s Ongoing Dispute with UMG

Ethan Millman
·2 min read
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Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour in Singapore on March 2, 2024. - Credit: Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images/TAS Rights Management
Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour in Singapore on March 2, 2024. - Credit: Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images/TAS Rights Management

Taylor Swift’s catalog is once again available on TikTok, even as her record label, Universal Music Group, is still in the middle of a heated dispute with the influential short-form video platform.

Back in February, Swift’s tracks were among the thousands pulled off TikTok after UMG announced that it hadn’t reached a new licensing agreement with the app, claiming in an open letter that TikTok wasn’t compensating artists enough for their work, also citing concerns over safety and AI music on the platform.

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“Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music,” UMG claimed at the time. TikTok denied UMG’s claims and said the company was putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.” A month later, UMG made an even more drastic move in pulling its publishing catalog, making it so that songs written by UMPG’s writers were removed as well, even if they were recorded by artists at other record labels.

But by Thursday morning, Swift’s music was back, and the TikToks that featured her songs were once again unmuted. As of publication, it’s difficult to say for certain how and why her music is back up, though it could have to do with Swift having control over her master and publishing rights. As of this article’s publication, music from other UMG-signed stars including Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish and Post Malone remains unavailable.

Reps for Swift, UMG, and TikTok didn’t respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.

Swift’s music is back a week before she’s set to release her upcoming 11th album The Tortured Poets Department. A major question now becomes whether Swift’s catalog returning means that Tortured Poets will be available on the app come release day.

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