Video-hosting giant TikTok pulls out songs from Universal Music Group as the rift between the two companies deepens.

Since Thursday, 1 February, TikTok began muting videos containing the music of Universal Music Group artists, such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande, with some being replaced with other available TikTok sounds.

However, sped-up, slowed and reverbed versions of the songs are still available to use.

Last Tuesday, 30 January, a spokesman of Universal Music Group called out TikTok’s unwillingness to compensate its artists and songwriters.

“Our agreements with TikTok have expired because of TikTok’s unwillingness to appropriately compensate artists and songwriters, protect human artists from the harmful effects of AI and address online safety issues for TikTok’s users.”

“TikTok still argues that artists should be grateful for the ‘free promotion’ and that music companies are ‘greedy’ for expecting them to simply compensate artists and songwriters appropriately, and on similar levels as other social media platforms currently do,” the spokesperson further added.

The music label group also lamented the influx of AI-generated music recordings in the said application.

In a statement issued last Tuesday by TikTok, it also called Universal Music Group “greedy.”

“Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen 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.”

As of writing, the music of Taylor Swift, under her verified account, is now unavailable. In Billie Eilish’s account, the only one available is “What Was I Made For” — a song published by Warner Music Group.

The songs of Lewis Capaldi, Lana Del Rey and Kendrick Lamar have also been removed from the video-sharing platform.

More music from other Universal Music Group artists is also expected to be pulled out from the application in the coming days.