Independent artists are getting caught in UMG TikTok takedowns

While some independent artists view UMG’s battle with TikTok as an opportunity, others struggle as their music is banned from the platform.

The UMG-ordered TikTok takedowns include dozens of artists whose independent records are distributed by UMG, its subsidiary Virgin, or whose songs are published by UMGP.

Independent songstress mazie’s label Goodbye is distributed by Virgin, so when her 2021 viral hit “dumb, dumb” was featured in the background of an Uber Eat’s SuperBowl 2024 commercial, she was unable to share it with her 375,000 TikTok followers to amplify her success.

“It’s insane,” Mazie told Billboard. “My song was just in a Super Bowl commercial, and I have to repromote it [by] using other people’s ripped versions of my song on the platform.”

Independent artists ranging from Kristiane (Fader/Virgin), LA rockers Dead Poesy (Position/Virgin), and Pawns or Kings (Ingrooves/Virgin), who had just spent $7000 on a video for the track “Anymore” are also among the artists struggling the overcome the ban by promoting on other platforms as well as covers of their songs on TikTok.

Canadian rapper bbno$’s 2021 track “Edamame,” which has 426 million plays on Spotify and 92 million views on YouTube, was having a new TikTok moment just as the ban hit. But because he had licensed the song for five years to mTheory, which UMG acquired in 2022, he too was caught in the takedown.

“I’m actually fully independent. It was just this one deal that looped all the songs together, and I got fucked,” said bbno$, who is exploring tactics like redoing the track using the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants to avoid detection and get back on TikTok.

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