Tones And I Comes Out Swinging Against Universal Music

Tones And I has come out swinging on social media today against Universal Music’s decision to pull their catalogue from video platform Tiktok earlier this week. With the consequences continuing to make seismic waves across the industry, Tones voices the hurt and confusion that is being felt in the artist community.

“Can we talk about the fact that Universal are pulling all their artists’ music from Tiktok, like they aren’t the original ‘ripper offers’ of artists anyway. They are just trying to claim now that they’re the beaten broke-down poor artist that doesn’t get paid enough when they’re the ones that take the most— let’s be honest.”

With many artists pointing out the irony that they were signed to Universal because of going viral on the platform, Tones And I has pointed out the concerns of many Universal artists who have not felt the ability to speak out on the situation. Tones And I is represented by Sony Music in Australia and Warner Music elsewhere in the world, so has not been impacted by the ban.

“If they wanted to make a statement they should've just pulled the biggest artist from TikTok with their consent but to take up-and-coming artists that need this platform off the biggest music marketing platform in the world to me is a shame and makes their job and lives and careers even tougher.

“Taylor Swift, whatever… They don’t need Tiktok, but all these new up and coming artists that have signed with Universal, now cannot use Tiktok as a marketing platform for all their music, whereas artists from different labels can still use their music on Tiktok. Universal while fighting this battle lets everyone else use their music while maybe even reaping the rewards of this outcome.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve heard that it’s all stupid anyway and it’s not correct. I don’t know. Maybe I haven’t looked at it enough, but does anyone else have answers on this situation? At the end of the day, the artists are the only ones suffering AGAIN!”

Australian artist Peach PRC (signed to Island Records Australia, a subsidiary of UMG) posted 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”.

Other artists like George Alice pointed out the irony of being pushed to promote themselves on the platform for years by the very label that has now removed their content.

“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.”