This week on TikTok: the platform is a wasteland without Universal Music artists The impact of Universal Music Group (UMG) removing its music from TikTok due to failed licensing negotiations has seriously affected content. Users have been in a spiral trying to make content without their favorite artists’ audios and seeing favorite trends and videos go silent. This is highlighting the significant role music still plays as the backbone of TikTok’s culture (remember it was called Music.ly?). Artists from Taylor Swift and Drake to upcoming singers who rely on the app for all publicity have had their tracks removed—but Gen Z is filling in the gaps and losses with their own covers. The hashtag #UMG currently has 61K posts, the top post (from one week ago) alone with 12.7M likes showing a young user and her sister dancing to an instrumental with the caption “umg got us makin a dance w this song 😭.” Plenty more echo the way dance trends which once fueled the app will...
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