{"id":26386,"date":"2024-02-08T12:35:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T17:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=26386"},"modified":"2024-02-08T12:44:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T17:44:59","slug":"tiktoks-latest-assault-ripping-off-american-artists-and-songwriters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/26386\/tiktoks-latest-assault-ripping-off-american-artists-and-songwriters\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok\u2019s Latest Assault: Ripping Off American Artists and Songwriters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans are by now broadly aware of the threat<\/a> posed by Chinese-owned TikTok, including its threat to U.S. national security.<\/p>\n

In recent days, we\u2019ve witnessed in real time another emerging TikTok threat reaching the headlines:\u00a0 The threat it poses to intellectual property protections, which undergird<\/a> America\u2019s status as the most artistically and musically productive and influential nation in human history.<\/p>\n

Universal Music Group, however, has decided to stand up and fight back by removing<\/a> its catalog of songs \u2013 including artists like Taylor Swift, Drake and Billie Eilish \u2013 from TikTok.<\/p>\n

Tone-Deaf TikTok has built its aggressive worldwide empire largely on the backs of music created by American artists, as even its corporate leadership openly admits.\u00a0 As TikTok\u2019s very own \u201cYear in TikTok 2021 Music Report\u201d states in its opening sentence<\/a>, \u201cMusic is at the heart of the TikTok experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those are its own words.\u00a0 Indeed, TikTok content features music to a degree beyond other social media platforms.<\/p>\n

As the contractual relationship between Universal and TikTok approached its end on January 31, TikTok decided to play hardball by proposing to compensate songwriters and artists a fraction of what other social media platforms pay, essentially disregarding its reliance on music-based content amid ascending advertising revenues and user base.<\/p>\n

In other words, TikTok demands a right to build a music-reliant business without paying fair market value for that music on which it relies.<\/p>\n

Songwriters and performing artists invest enormous amounts of time, talent and resources in creating their original works of art.\u00a0 In so doing, those artists and songwriters obtain intellectual property rights in their creations.\u00a0 By leveraging its massive and growing worldwide power, TikTok seeks to exploit those creative works for its own benefit without just compensation.\u00a0 That violates the artists’ intellectual property rights, which have provided the fuel by which America became the world\u2019s leader in music influence.\u00a0 Artists deserve fair compensation for the use of their creations, and TikTok cannot be allowed to jeopardize America\u2019s system of IP protections.<\/p>\n

It also merits emphasis that TikTok\u2019s behavior threatens emerging artists and songwriters most of all.\u00a0 Whereas established artists often possess other potential revenue sources, emerging artists and songwriters rely more heavily upon royalties and fair compensation for their works.\u00a0 Consequently, TikTok\u2019s refusal to fairly compensate for use of music in expanding its platform will stifle growth of new musicians and restrict their ability to sustain careers in an already competitive industry.<\/p>\n

TikTok has made many enemies, and its behavior in this instance helps illustrate why that\u2019s the case.\u00a0 It is inherently unfair and improper for TikTok to use its vast and growing control to exploit songwriters\u2019 and musical artists\u2019 creations to amass even more profits and expand its worldwide reach without offering fair compensation to those creative minds who play such an outsized role in its business model and growth.<\/p>\n

Universal Music Group merits applause for standing up to TikTok, which may inspire others in positions of power to follow its lead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans are by now broadly aware of the threat posed by Chinese-owned TikTok, including its threat to U.S. national security. In recent days, we\u2019ve witnessed in real time another emerging TikTok threat reaching the headlines:\u00a0 The threat it poses to intellectual property protections, which undergird America\u2019s status as the most artistically and musically productive and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2871,2872,4672,4704,5258,5257],"class_list":["post-26386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-intellectual-property","tag-ip","tag-music","tag-performance-rights","tag-songwriters","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26386"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26391,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26386\/revisions\/26391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}