Aussie Artists Respond To Universal Removing Their Music From TikTok

Peach PRC, George Alice and Hauskey are just some of the Australian artists who have shared their reactions to Universal Music Group (UMG) pulling their music from TikTok.

Each of them is signed to record labels under the UMG umbrella and have been adversely affected by the giant’s decision to pull all artists from their roster from the popular video-sharing platform.

In case you missed it: earlier this week, Universal Music Group shared its decision to not renew a contract agreement with TikTok and instead opted to remove music from artists such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Post Malone and many more from the app.

UMG cited an inability to reach an agreement with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, over royalty payments and AI-generated recordings using the label’s properties.

TikTok hit back at the label and slammed its “self-serving actions”. TikTok didn’t fight to keep UMG’s roster; they confirmed in a statement that UMG’s entire recorded music catalogue – spanning some three million tracks from heavyweight artists would indeed be wiped from the platform.

As of 31 January, all UMG artists’ music has been silenced in any previously played videos, with a copyright notice appearing on said videos.

An unnamed representative of TikTok said: “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”

TikTok continued to accuse UMG of sharing a “false narrative and rhetoric”, calling out the latter company for choosing “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”.

Universal’s decision has affected Aussie artists, too, with Peach PRC (signed to Island Records Australia, a subsidiary of UMG) posting a video of herself rocking back and forth to a cartoon voice saying, “Who do they think they are? Best years of my life to this place, and they think they can just fire me like that? Like trash? I don’t think so!”

She captioned the video, “Me after Universal muted every song I’ve ever created under them on the very platform they discovered and signed me from”.

Hauskey, who’s signed to Neon Records under the UMG umbrella, posted yesterday: “As a universal artist, I won’t be able to post my stuff on here no mo. Follow my insta if you want more Hauskey”.

In a follow-up video posted today, Hauskey might have unearthed a loophole: by sharing a slowed-down version of his song. The caption read, “Test to see if TikTok will mute slowed-down versions of my music too. Are you hearing this?”

George Alice posted a video yesterday with the caption, “I personally have fought the music promotion on TikTok for a long time with my team.. but still chipped away at it when I was comfy. I’ve watched people do it for years & it’s so clever. What do we do now? Do we have a backup here or a finish line for the feud?”

In the video, Alice discussed the moment when she found out that her music had been removed from TikTok.

After referencing the fact that larger artists have been mentioned in the UMG removal of music from TikTok, she asked:

“What do the small fish of the ponds – the artists that have been relentlessly posting the really embarrassing videos to these sounds for the last three/four/five years to promote our music – and most of the time it does pretty well – what do we do now when the other artists do have access to TikTok, the largest social media app that we have, and Universal artists don’t?

“Where do we promote our stuff? Is there a loophole yet, or will there be a loophole? Will our music be returning? There’s many questions but I don’t know.”

The posts have seen support from fellow artists Eliott, Fletcher, Meredith Bull, Larissa Lambert, and, of course, their fans.

@peachprc

oh 😀

♬ original sound - Victim Van Dort

@hauskeymusic

#newmusic #originalmusic

♬ bjb slowed - Hauskey

@georgealicemusic

I personally have fought the music promotion on tik tok for a long time with my team.. but still chipped away at it when i was comfy. Ive watched people do it for years & its so clever. what do we do now? Do we have a backup here or a finish line for the fued? 👀 anywayyyyyy #umg #universaltiktok #universalvstiktok

♬ original sound - GEORGE ALICE

@georgealicemusic

Im feeling kinda hopeful today? I loved the convo i started w artist friends in the comments of my previous vid <3 #fyp #universal #umg #fyp

♬ original sound - GEORGE ALICE