Triller pulls most music catalogs, making it unusable for many creators

UPDATE: Triller removed the entire music catalogs of Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music, and top independent label licensor Merlin.

The move makes the platform virtually unusable for any creator who uses or promotes music on the Tik Tok like platform. Triller claims 65 million monthly active users, though some doubt that number.

Yesterday’s takedown follows an August lawsuit filed by Sony Music alleging that the platform owes it millions. Sources tell Hypebot that many of Triller’s deals are up for renewal and that the platform is “grossly” past due on payments to other labels and music publishers as well.

Triller denies the claim and says it had nothing to do with yesterday’s takedown.

Triller says that it is “reassessing each of our label deals as they come due as our catalog music usage is a small fraction of our overall business with creators… Some labels are more used than others, and if we can make financial arrangements that make sense for the platform, on a label-by-label basis, we will. In other cases, the usage does not justify the cost.”

UPDATE: Triller says it is seeking revenue share deals like Spotify and other streamers have with labels as opposed to flat cash payments.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.