TikTok faces a loss of more songs following NMPA’s alarming decision

The National Music Publishers Association is committed to following in the footsteps of the Universal Music Group as they reveal that a renewal of a licensing deal with TikTok is not in the cards.

In chaotic fashion, Universal Music Group pulled out their entire music catalog from TikTok, muting videos that contain songs from the globe’s most famous artists such as Drake, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, and many more. The decision came off the back of a disagreement with TikTok over a new licensing deal which TikTok disrespected by offering a substantially lower compensation rate for artists. Now, a month and a half later, the National Music Publishers Association is set to do the same as they revealed plans to not extend the licensing deal with TikTok which is due to expire on the 30th of April.

What exactly happened? Similarly to UMG, the NMPA issued a letter to members in which they stated:

“Recently, the press has highlighted concerns around TikTok’s licensing practices, concerns that NMPA has heard directly from many of our members. At this time, we do not anticipate that there will be an option to renew or extend the current NMPA licenses or participate in a new license with TikTok through NMPA.“

The letter came off the back of NMPA’s CEO David Israelite who flung comments towards TikTok:

“It is exposing a massive bias that exists in the music industry, with licenses like TikTok and even with the press in terms of somehow not thinking that songwriter rights are equal to the artist rights. That bothers me. With regard to TikTok, there’s a general feeling that the amount of money paid for music overall is not enough.”

Even though the possibility of a renewal of the licensing deal is up in the air at the moment, NMPA is still leaving some room for further negotiations. At the end of the letter, the NMPA stated that “if circumstances change prior to the expiration of the current TikTok licenses, NMPA will promptly notify members”. It’s still left to be seen if NMPA will copy the same actions as UMG, but if they do, artists signed to the former label will not only lose their revenue but also the massive exposure TikTok offers to them. It is still unclear which artists are signed to NMPA but the organization offers a chance to those artists to independently negotiate terms with TikTok if they want their music to stay put on the platform. You can read the full NMPA letter here.