THE dispute that has been raging between Universal Music Group and TikTok for over a month is a reminder of just how central music is to the Chinese application.
However, it is often modified by the platform’s users, raising questions about respect for copyright and royalties.
Spend just a few minutes on TikTok and you will hear alternative versions of all kinds of famous songs, where the pitch and/or rhythm have been altered.
When the tempo is slowed down, it is dubbed a “slowed+reverb” version, and in the opposite case, it is a “sped up” audio.
For music lovers unfamiliar with TikTok, these remixes may come as a surprise. Yet they are commonplace on the platform.
A company called Pex, which analyses copyright-protected content on digital services, estimates that 38 per cent of music on TikTok has been modified. This figure has risen sharply since 2022. Back then, a quarter of the songs on the platform had been modified by internet users.
And therein lies the problem with remixes. They are created by internet users to accompany their content, not by the original artistes or their record companies. As such, the success of these remixes on TikTok is of little benefit to the rights holders, except when the latter release official versions of their viral tracks on the platform.
This is the case, for example, of Demi Lovato, who released a “sped up” version of “Cool for the Summer” in 2022. The track originally dates back to 2015, but had been revived with the resurgence of nightcore on TikTok.
However, it is often difficult for rights holders to find modified versions of their songs on TikTok.
Pex claims that the vast majority of “slowed+reverb” and “sped up” remixes are not listed as such on online platforms. Only 0.16 per cent of the content analysed by the company contains the terms “sped up” or “nightcore” in its title, and 0.11 per cent features the words “slowed”, “reverb” or “slowed+reverb”.
“If we were trying to find modified audio by searching for keywords, we would miss millions of songs or have to listen to every track to hear its speed and pitch,” Pex analysts explain.
The popularity of modified music online is reviving debates about remuneration for artistes and songwriters in the streaming age. Music platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and TikTok benefit a tiny minority.
Anger is mounting, prompting Universal Music — the world’s biggest music company — to remove all songs from its TikTok catalogue. This decision could affect between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of the most popular songs on the application. – ETXDailyUp
