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JT Gets Creative In Overcoming TikTok & UMG Dispute

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It’s no secret that Universal Music Group’s decision to pull their music from TikTok has wreaked havoc on artists and their promotional tactics. Luckily for JT, however, she has a plan to get around it. Earlier this week, the City Girl turned solo star announced her upcoming single “Okay,” which is expected to appear on her upcoming mixtape, City Cinderella. While she’s with UMG, she doesn’t plan on letting the algorithm mute the track, getting in the way of her success.

JT took to Twitter/X yesterday to unveil her plan. Before urging social media users to pre-save her song, she told them to spread distorted versions of it across TikTok. “Remember I’m with UMG so once song is out Tik Tok will be muted,” she wrote. “So try to get a distorted sound going I have one on my Tik Tok use it if you want or make your own IDC just spread the sound.”

Read More: JT Recalls A Fan Trying To Rap Battle Her At An Afterparty: “Y’all Getting Bold.”

JT Urges Fans To “Get A Distorted Sound Going”

“Okay” is available for pre-save now, and hopefully, JT’s plan will prove to be effective. Listeners are already eager to hear the full version and think the femcee has yet another hit on her hands. It’s not the only exciting thing she has on the way, however. JT still has a few dates left on her first-ever headlining solo tour. She’s scheduled to stop in West Palm Beach, Baltimore, New York, and more in the coming weeks.

The Miami-born performer has faced some criticism for her choice of venues on the tour, namely from GloRilla during their Twitter feud earlier this month. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like she’s taken it to heart. She jokingly told a crowd this week that she hasn’t had a “wack cookout” yet. Are you looking forward to JT’s new single “Okay”? What about her plan to bypass TikTok’s dispute with UMG? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below, and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates.

Read More: JT Loved Lil Uzi Vert’s Viral Coachella Dance Moves

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Birdman Says He’s Got “Love & Respect” For UMG For Letting Him Own Masters, But Fans Think Somethings Not Adding Up

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Birdman explained how his relationship with Univeral Music Group has helped him become rich and continue owning his masters during an interview with Steve-O on his Wild Ride! podcast. Despite the comments, many fans aren’t fully buying into everything he had to say.

The conversation began with Steve-O congratulating Birdman on Cash Money Records selling over one billion albums throughout its run. From there, they discussed the ownership of masters and Birdman admitted that he didn’t know anything about that side of the music industry when he first got into hip-hop. He said he was already caught up in “bullsh*t” by the time he understood the business side of things. “I did own everything,” he clarified. “I never allowed none of the labels to own anything. Universal never owned nothing. We owned all our own music and publishing. So, when I figured out and found out, I went and established what was missing and what was lost because we always owned everything. Still today, I own 100% of my company. I own 100% of my masters.”

Read More: Birdman Wants To Invest Some Serious Numbers Into Cash Money Reunion Tour

Birdman Attends Lil Wayne’s “Funeral” Album Release Party

MIAMI, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 01: Birdman and Lil Waune attend Lil Wayne’s “Funeral” album release party on February 01, 2020 in Miami, Florida (Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images for Young Money/Republic Records)

From there, he added: “I’ve got nothing but love and respect for Universal because they never tried to take that from me. That was my consent that this is what I wanted to do and they never tried to take that from me. I know early on in other artists’ and other people’s careers, not to say Universal, but they took that from them. I never experienced that.” When The Art of Dialogue shared the clip on Twitter, fans expressed doubt at Birdman’s comments. “Something ain’t adding up birdman. Took you years to pay back lil Wayne,” one user wrote. Another added: “Bro robbed everybody that made him rich (and famous) don’t care what he owns as it’s probably ill gotten gains anyway.” Check out the full comments below.

Birdman Discusses Relationship With Universal Music Group

The interview arrives as Birdman has been feuding with Rick Ross on social media due to his beef with Drake. Be on the lookout for further updates on Birdman on HotNewHipHop.

Read More: Gucci Mane Shares Unique Way That Birdman Inspired Him

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UMG Rebuffed Lil Rod’s Diddy Lawsuit In A Fiery Response Calling His Claims ‘A Delusion Or A Lie’

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Universal Music Group would have had enough legal drama to deal with from its row with TikTok over streaming royalties. Unfortunately for Sir Lucian Grainge (CEO of UMG), the company now finds itself drawn into the legal ruckus between Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

In Jones’ controversial sexual harassment suit against Combs, he’s alleged that the music mogul’s supposed transgressions have involved a number of celebrities and fellow recording industry higher-ups, including Grainge, Usher, Yung Miami, and even the UK’s Prince Harry. However, in a new court filing UMG blasted Jones and his accusations as its lawyers argued for UMG to be dismissed from the ongoing suit. In addition, UMG wants legal penalties levied against attorney Tyrone Blackburn, who filed Jones’ lawsuit.

In the new filing, which was shared on Twitter by legal affairs journalist Meghann Cuniff and reported by Billboard, Universal’s attorney Donald Zakarin writes:

“A license to practice law is a privilege. Mr. Blackburn, plaintiff’s lawyer, has misused that license to self-promote, gratuitously, falsely and recklessly accusing the UMG defendants of criminal behavior… The [complaint] hurls accusations of criminal racketeering and criminal sex trafficking against the UMG defendants, respected individuals and companies having utterly nothing to do with plaintiff’s claims. These accusations are recklessly false and, but for the fact that they are embodied in a complaint, would be libelous.

…I have never seen any lawyer, in any pleading, in any court, accuse people and companies of criminal conduct without the slightest basis and then try to file an amended pleading completely jettisoning every allegation underpinning the original claims and substituting completely different and irreconcilable allegations to support the very same claims.”

The response refutes claims that Grainge has ever been to one of Diddy’s supposed “freak parties,” and points out that the only UMG entity with dealings with Combs was Motown, to distribute one album, The Love Album: Off The Grid. You can see the filing in part below:

Is TikTok Removing Music?

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Let’s cut to the chase: Yes, TikTok has removed a ton of music from its platform. If you haven’t heard, the licensing agreement between TikTok and Universal Music Group expired yesterday, and as a result, all UMG artists‘ music must be removed or TikTok could face legal action for copyright infringement. That means artists like Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and many, many, MANY more have been nixed, and no one is quite sure when or if they’ll be back, because UMG is adamant that TikTok hasn’t been negotiating in good faith.

Why Did UMG Remove Its Artists From TikTok?

Long story short, UMG’s leadership doesn’t feel that TikTok is offering fair market value for its artists. UMG also argues that while TikTok is building its own music platform, TikTok Music, and working on AI tools that may help users imitate real-life artists, it’s also undermining the value of any new licensing agreement, since the app could soon be flooded with more songs like AI-generated Drake song “Heart On My Sleeve.” This has been a pain point for the entire recording industry as these tools proliferate and possibly endanger fans’ interest in waiting for (and buying) the real artists’ actual songs.

In an open letter published on the company’s website on Tuesday (January 30), UMG wrote:

TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.

On AI, TikTok is allowing the platform to be flooded with AI-generated recordings—as well as developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI music creation on the platform itself – and then demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI.

Further, TikTok makes little effort to deal with the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringe our artists’ music and it has offered no meaningful solutions to the rising tide of content adjacency issues, let alone the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform. The only means available to seek the removal of infringing or problematic content (such as pornographic deepfakes of artists) is through the monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of “Whack-a-Mole.”

While TikTok denied these accusations in a statement sent to Billboard, it also doesn’t appear that either company has any intentions to budge for the foreseeable future.

Why Aren’t Drake’s Songs On TikTok?

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Millions of people have developed the subconscious habit to open TikTok first thing in the morning, and if that’s you, you might notice that TikTok sounds different today, February 1: Drake is among many artists whose catalogs are no longer available under the “Sounds” tab to soundtrack a TikTok.

Here’s why.

Why Aren’t Drake’s Songs On TikTok?

In short, Universal Music Group (UMG) wasn’t bluffing. On Tuesday, January 30, UMG posted an open letter to address its expiring contract with TikTok.

“In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them on three critical issues — appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users,” it reads, in part. UMG additionally relayed that “TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal” during negotiations, leading to UMG no longer licensing UMG artists’ catalogs to TikTok.

UMG is one of the most vast label umbrellas in music. So, while Drake is signed to Republic Records, Republic falls under the UMG umbrella. Therefore, Drake’s music was stripped from TikTok.

TikTok released its own (much shorter) statement on Tuesday, as seen below:

“It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.

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.

TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.”

Goodbye Taylor Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish, And So On: UMG Has Officially Removed Its Artists’ Music From TikTok

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It happened: Universal Music Group has removed its artists’ songs from TikTok. As of today (February 1), official songs from artists signed to UMG labels no longer appear under the “Sounds” tab on the TikTok app, and previously published videos that featured those songs now have muted audio.

Impacted artists include Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, Steve Lacy, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Harry Styles, Rosalía, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, U2, Elton John, J Balvin, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, Post Malone, and many others.

TikTok and UMG had a licensing agreement that expired yesterday (January 31), and the day before it did, there were clear indications that negotiations on a new contract were not going well.

UMG shared an open letter about the situation, which read in part:

“As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth. How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.

TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans.

We will never do that.”

TikTok then shared a response that reads in full:

“It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.

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.

TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.”

At the moment, it’s not clear when or if a new licensing agreement between TikTok and UMG will be reached, and when/if the artists’ music will return to TikTok.

Which UMG Artists Will Be Removed From TikTok?

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Beef between two major media companies was made public yesterday (January 30), and the feud could have a noteworthy impact on the day-to-day content people consume.

TikTok and Universal Music Group have a licensing agreement that expires today, and this agreement allows UMG songs to appear on the TikTok platform and be utilized in videos from TikTok users. Negotiations on a new contract have apparently been going poorly, as indicated by the open letters both companies shared criticizing each other. If a new deal isn’t reached, music by UMG artists could soon leave TikTok.

Which UMG Artists Will Be Removed From TikTok?

Let’s start by looking at what UMG is: Broadly speaking, it’s a massive company that owns a ton of recognizable record labels, including but not limited to Interscope, Geffen, Capitol, Def Jam, Island, Polydor, Republic, and Virgin Music Group.

So, presumably, in the event that a new licensing agreement is not reached, all acts on those labels would see their music leave TikTok. That includes so many hit-making artists, like Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, SZA, Steve Lacy, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Harry Styles, Rosalía, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, U2, Elton John, J Balvin, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, and Post Malone.

Those artists have an estimated 950 trillion streams between them (note: exaggerated estimate for comedic effect only), and a ton of beloved acts not even mentioned above are also under the UMG umbrella. So, should their music be wiped off of TikTok, it would be a noticeable loss for the platform’s users.

Why Is UMG Removing Its Artists From TikTok?

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If you’ve been on TikTok anytime in the past couple of days, the odds are high you’ve seen some of your favorite creators fretting about an upcoming change that could result in devastating potentially millions of videos on the platform. If TikTok can’t reach a deal to renew its music licensing agreement with Universal Music Group, the label says it plans to pull its entire catalog from the app, resulting in any video utilizing UMG artists’ songs to be muted, beginning when the agreement expires today. Otherwise, TikTok could open itself to legal liability for copyright infringement. So…

Why Is UMG Removing Its Artists From TikTok?

In an open letter published on the company’s website on Tuesday (January 30), UMG expresses a number of concerns about an ongoing partnership with the app. Chief among them is ensuring fair monetary value for its artists’ work as TikTok seeks to launch its own music-based business (naturally). Meanwhile, UMG also says it has concerns about hate and harassment on the app and TikTok not taking a firm stance when it comes to “AI”-generated works, a controversial topic these days.

UMG alleges that “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay” and that it “demanded a contractual right which would allow [AI] content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists.” This is while TikTok itself is developing AI tools that’d make it easier to do so.

Labels under UMG include Interscope and its subsidiaries, the Capitol Music Group umbrella, Republic Records, Island Records, Def Jam, and more. UMG artists include some of the biggest in the world: Ariana Grande, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Drake, Elton John, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, SZA, Taylor Swift, and more.

However, pulling these acts from TikTok could be risky for the label as well; the app has increasingly become one of the biggest drivers for new singles and artists to gain popularity. For example, JID, who is signed to Dreamville under Interscope, has experienced a massive surge of interest in his song “Surround Sound” due to a TikTok trend in which creators tape their phones to their ceilings and dance under them (it’s sillly, but hey, it works). Meanwhile, older songs often find second lives on the app, such as The Weeknd’s “Die For You” and Miguel’s “Sure Thing.”

TikTok itself pointed this out in its response, telling Billboard, “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters. 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. TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.”

TikTok recently agreed to a licensing deal with Warner Music Group (of which Uproxx is an independent subsidiary) last July, allowing TikTok to use its catalog on the TikTok Music platform, saying that the deal would benefit artists. It remains to be seen how UMG pulling out will affect its business and artists, but TikTok wouldn’t be getting away unscathed, as a huge part of the appeal for its users is supporting their videos with popular music.

R. Kelly & UMG Ordered To Pay $500K In Victim Restitution From Royalties

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It seems like, despite R. Kelly’s failure to comply with victim restitution, the court is still able to get the money victims deserve. Moreover, according to legal documents obtained by TMZ Hip Hop, a judge signed an order into effect that garnished $500K from the convicted singer’s royalties amid his twenty-year prison sentence for sex crimes. Apparently, Universal Music Group held a lot of his royalties and hadn’t yet paid this amount in victim restitution, for which legal authorities had to intervene. In addition, reports suggest that much of these unpaid royalties stem from the R&B artist’s older hits that UMG hadn’t cashed in yet. Specifically, the company has over $567K in royalties.

Furthermore, this would cover R. Kelly’s outstanding debt of $506,950.26 to victims- and then some. Of course, these royalties mostly relate to his past material because, when it comes to new music, the Chicago native did not see a lot of success. Labels and imprints quickly dropped him among his trials and controversies. Regardless, many fans still hold on to his classics and big tracks, and even with all of this legal reckoning in mind, they still hold a lot of weight for listeners.

Read More: R. Kelly Accuses Prison Of Neglecting His Medical Needs: “I’m Scared For My Life”

R. Kelly In Court

R Kelly Garnish 500K Royalties Victims Hip Hop News
CHICAGO, IL – SEPTEMBER 17: Singer R. Kelly appears during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on September 17, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Kelly is facing multiple sexual assault charges and is being held without bail. (Photo by Antonio Perez – Pool via Getty Images)

In fact, the 56-year-old’s chances of ever returning to the musical realm seem quite slim. While many support him in terms of still listening to and praising his music, they also acknowledge that things are too far gone. Dame Dash is one of many industry titans who spoke on the R. Kelly situation and thought justice came to light. “I think he’s where he belongs,” the Roc-A-Fella affiliate explained. “I know Aaliyah, so I know what he did, I can’t be objective about that, you know what I’m saying? But he definitely seemed like he needed some help.

“I couldn’t believe [Jay-Z] did a project with R. Kelly knowing that he had r*ped my girl,” he added. “I was like, ‘Just don’t put my name on that, I don’t want no money from that. If it is, put it to Aaliyah foundation.’ Like, they did this s**t twice.” For more news and the latest updates on R. Kelly, come back to HNHH.

Read More: Boosie Badazz Would Take R. Kelly Over Michael Jackson In A Verzuz

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Spinrilla Shuts Down & Is Ordered To Pay $50 Million in Piracy Damages

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The iconic hip-hop mixtape website, Spinrilla, has shut down after a judge ordered the company to pay $50 million in piracy damages and other fees. Universal Music, Warner Music, and Sony Music, as well as other major record labels, filed the complaint against the website in documents obtained by Billboard. The order names Spinrilla founder Jeffrey Dylan Copeland.

“Through the Spinrilla website and apps, users with an artist account can upload content that any other user can then download or stream on demand for free, an unlimited number of times,” the RIAA’s lawyer James Lamberth writes in the complaint. “A substantial amount of content uploaded to the Spinrilla website and apps consists of popular sound recordings whose copyrights are owned by Plaintiffs.”

UMG Files Complaint Against Spinrilla

UKRAINE – 2021/06/04: In this photo illustration, Universal Music Group (UMG) logo is on a smartphone and pc screen. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The RIAA itself also issued a statement regarding Spinrilla. “Spinrilla specializes in ripping off music creators by offering thousands of unlicensed sound recordings for free,” the company said. “Fans today have access to millions upon millions of songs from innovative platforms and services that pay creators — this kind of illicit activity has no place in today’s music marketplace.”

The complaint further accuses Spinrilla of having “knowingly contributed to, profited from, and induced, the widespread infringement of Plaintiffs’ sound recording copyrights through the Spinrilla website and apps.” The settlement additionally states that Copeland must pay “$50,000,000, inclusive of any recoverable costs and attorneys’ fees.” He has five days to shut down his site. He’ll have to transfer the website domain registration to the property of the record companies, although they can’t use it.

Fans on Twitter were sad to see the iconic mixtape website meet its end. “Spinrilla got me thru highschool,” one fan wrote. Another tweeted, “Damn RIP Spinrilla [heartbreak emoji]. You made my early years in college lit.” Spinrilla isn’t the only mixtape website that has been experiencing business troubles. There were also rumors that Datpiff was also shutting down this year, but the company later clarified they were only making changes to their website.

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