More than two months after Universal Music Group removed music from its artists—including Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Ariana Grande—off of the TikTok music library because of an ongoing dispute, some of Swift’s songs mysteriously reappeared on the app.
Some of Taylor Swift’s hits including “Cruel Summer” and “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version)” … [+]
Some of Swift’s biggest hits, including “You Belong With Me,” “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” “Cruel Summer,” “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version),” and “ME!,” were available for users to put in their videos as of Thursday afternoon, despite being removed from the library weeks before.
Swift is a Universal Music Group artist, but owns the songwriting and recording rights to her recordings, which fall under the Universal Music Publishing Group, the New York Times reported.
UMG, which Swift signed with in 2018, allowed its licensing deal with the app to expire on Jan. 31 after it and TikTok failed to negotiate terms to renew the deal.
Universal accused TikTok of trying to “bully” it into a deal that was “worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth.”
Neither TikTok nor Universal Music Group immediately answered Forbes’ request for comment.
Forbes estimated Swift to have a net worth of about $1.1 billion as of 4 p.m. Eastern time Thursday afternoon. Swift made her first appearance on Forbes’ Billionaire List this year after becoming a billionaire in October, in large part due to her Eras Tour.
When it announced in January that its artists’ music would no longer be available on the app, UMG said it pressed TikTok on three critical issues: compensation for artists, “protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI and online safety for TikTok’s users.” In response to UMG’s claims, TikTok said the argument was false and the label was “self-serving” for walking away from a “powerful” platform with over a billion users. When the music was officially pulled in late January, videos that featured the songs were not deleted but went mute, including those accompanied by songs that launched viral trends or dances, like Swift’s “Cruel Summer” or The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” both of which were removed but had appeared in 2.5 million and 1.8 videos, respectively.
Swift is releasing a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.
