Taylor Swift Producer Jack Antonoff Weighs In on Universal TikTok Music Removal: “It’s Ass Backwards”
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Following this week’s news that Universal Music Group is pulling its song catalog from TikTok after failing to reach a new licensing deal with the social media platform, Jack Antonoff gave an unvarnished reaction to the sudden removal after winning producer of the year (non-classical) at Sunday’s 2024 Grammys. Antonoff frequently collaborates with UMG artist Taylor Swift, whose songs vanished from the platform on Wednesday.
“You got a whole industry being like, ‘You’ve got to do everything; you’ve got to do everything, and here’s where you’ve got to do it,’ and then one day it’s like, ‘Poof!'” Antonoff told the backstage Grammys press room when asked about the TikTok removal. “There’s a lot of things wrong [in the industry]. Last time I was here we were talking about ticketing; you’ve always got to make sure as an artist you can’t get used to being paid less, which they try to get you used to. But I think it’s ass-backwards and at the very least we should have known.”
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“Is that the one that’s going to make the news?” he joked of his answer.
Antonoff was nominated twice in this year’s song of the year category, for his work with Swift on “Anti-Hero” as well as with Lana Del Rey on “A&W.” He is also the frontman for the band Bleachers.
Universal Music Group abruptly announced on Tuesday that it would be pulling its catalog from the music-centric app in a blistering open letter to artists and songwriters titled “Why we must call time out on TikTok.”
“In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them on three critical issues — appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users,” the open letter stated.
“TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” it continued, adding that TikTok currently accounts for only about 1 percent of UMG revenue. “Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.”
As it relates to artificial intelligence, UMG argues that “TikTok is allowing the platform to be flooded with AI-generated recordings — as well as developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI music creation on the platform itself — and then demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI.”
TikTok responded to UMG with a statement of its own Tuesday night:
“It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters,” the statement began. “Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent.”
“TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher,” it continued. “Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.”
Best new artist nominee Noah Kahan, signed to UMG’s Republic Records, also weighed in on the issue on the Grammys red carpet, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “It’s definitely a difficult conversation and definitely a difficult topic, I haven’t digested all the facts and I don’t think everyone knows everything. It’s a shame for the developing artists for sure, I’m very, very lucky to have built a career over eight years and built a fan base. I hope that it’s resolved of course but I like to believe that there was music being made before TikTok and that there’s a way around this and a way through it and I’m just thinking of the younger artists and hoping they find their feet.”
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