TikTok’s music loss could be YouTube's gain
Semafor Signals
Supported by
Insights from The Verge, YouTube Shorts’ Kevin Ferguson, and The Economic Times
The News
Just weeks after one of the world’s biggest music companies pulled its artists’ tracks from TikTok, rival short-form video platform YouTube Shorts debuted new features specifically aimed at increasing engagement with music.
YouTube’s new “Remix” function, which allows Shorts users to make their own content alongside music videos available on the platform, marks the latest evolution in the fight for the short-form video market. It comes after TikTok got into a licensing dispute with Universal Music Group, which forced the app to remove the catalogs of artists like Taylor Swift, Drake, and Bad Bunny from its platform. YouTube, meanwhile, has a global licensing agreement with UMG.
SIGNALS
YouTube looks to existing creator base for growth
YouTube’s foray into the world of short-form video makes sense for a platform that already dominates much of the online video and music sector. The timing of Shorts’ new initiative “suggests it’s a direct response to TikTok’s current music licensing battle,” and sends the message to creators that they can still make videos with songs that were scrubbed from TikTok, The Verge wrote. YouTube “invented the creator economy,” Kevin Ferguson, who leads Shorts’ global partnerships initiatives, told Semafor in an interview last year. YouTube hopes its existing base of creators will be willing to use Shorts, and that their presence will help attract TikTok creators hoping to turn their followings into steadier, more lucrative income streams through longer YouTube videos.
Shorts is booming in India
While TikTok is still the leading driver of cultural and music trends in the U.S., Shorts is wildly popular in places like India, where TikTok is banned. The platform, which launched there in 2020 ahead of a full global release, is the app of choice for 80% of internet users, though smaller, Indian-made video apps have taken a hit as a result. Shorts has prioritized its global reach, hiring over two dozen “community partner managers” who work with creators across 20 different languages. “I still think we’re at the early stages of this thing,” Ferguson said of the global short-form video sector.
TikTok’s golden age of audio ends
UMG’s decision to yank its music from TikTok, which largely stemmed from disagreements over protections against AI-generated songs, won’t lead to the death of music on the platform. Users are already uploading bootleg remixes and covers of Taylor Swift songs, for example, tech journalist Ryan Broderick wrote in Fast Company. TikTok, he said, is facing its own “Napster moment,” referring to the audio-sharing service that shut down in 2001 over copyright challenges. “Every time a crackdown like this happens, it only results in three things: More piracy, ironically enough, a worse environment for fans, and more hoops for smaller artists to jump through,” Broderick wrote.
