As of February 1, 2024, an existing agreement between TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) expired. Unfortunately for dedicated dancers on the platform, that means many of their favorite tracks are muted on current videos, and unavailable completely for new ones.
UMG posted an open letter about their supposed reasoning behind refusing to re-up the deal, but it's hard to take it completely seriously. Anyone who has listened to radio, even briefly, in the last few years can quickly identify songs being played specifically because they've gone viral on TikTok.
UMG talks a big game about wanting to "fairly compensate [their] artists and songwriters," but anyone familiar with the music industry knows that comparatively little of the money from such deals really end up in artists' pockets.
Regardless of which megacorp is most to blame for this current battle, the users of TikTok have decided to make do by being creative with their sound choices. Here are a few of our faves.
TikTokers make their own versions of muted sounds
@janicee.janicee ♬ original sound - Janice🌹
@princessrevaness Replying to @Nun Ya An attempt was made #fleepflop ♬ Fleep Flop - Rev | Star Wars Jokes
@dancekae The ending actually hurts my ears but Universal took the original so this is all we have left #universalmusic #umg #standingnexttoyou #jungkook #btsmusic #bts #armybts ♬ original sound - Kaeli Dance
Others try to apply popular dances to generic music that wasn't hit by the UMG takedowns
@reeseybum ♬ Fluffing a Duck - Kevin MacLeod
@justdance there's nothing wrong here this is exactly how the OG map sounded xx
♬ original sound - stylevintee
@jennifermika_ It kinda works ngl 😔🫶 dc: @Dilen De Zilva ib: @austin ♬ Fluffing a Duck - Kevin MacLeod
You know what? You don't even need music to dance
@smacmccreanor Moment of silence for the silence
♬ Not a UMG song - Smac
