Universal Music Group Pulls ALL Music From TikTok

In a bizarre move by the world’s largest music label, Universal Music Group has pulled ALL of its music off of TikTok, arguably the leading music discovery app in the world. The two conglomerates were not able to come to an agreement. If you go on TikTok now, all music UMG has rights to has been muted.

I personally suspect foul play here. Now, to preface, this is just speculation, but remember the US government is openly hostile to TikTok. All of their concerns about privacy are just as, if not more, applicable to US based companies. The Singaporean company constantly faces accusations of being tied with the Communist Party of China. They accuse the CPC of meddling with the US in blatant red scare style fearmongering and yet TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, has its own set of regulations enforced by the government. Sounds like cope!

This is where the speculation comes in; I think the Executives at UMG (Universal Music Group) and the Feds have come together on this. Hear me out, for all the reasons above there is an interest in stopping TikTok from continuing to undermine its US based competition. We also see a sea change in how people interact with the news because of TikTok. The US has completely lost the narrative on Israel/Palestine and I think there are elements within the Federal government that take unique exception to that.

Think about it, pulling all their music off of TikTok doesn’t make much sense. It is the epicenter of music discovery and youth culture it is where musicians need to be to stay relevant and find new audiences. Yet, here they are walking away from it. I suspect sabotage!

It’s also possible that leadership at UMG is trying to force TikTok’s hand to make an unfavorable deal. However, I just don’t see it. Perhaps they really are that naive, there is no slowing TikToks momentum but they can certainly try. These other reasons, to me, seem so short sighted that I lean towards the idea that there’s interference going on. If they can force TikTok into a corner, a US company could buy it up and reinstall the Shah as it were.

But that’s just a theory, a meeeemmmee theory.