TikTok has failed in its attempts to restart negotiations with Universal Music, according to people familiar with the matter, leaving two of the most powerful companies in entertainment deadlocked over money, copyright and how to treat songs created by artificial intelligence.
The impasse means even more musicians face the prospect of their work disappearing from the social media platform, which has been one of the biggest drivers of music consumption in recent years.
Universal, which controls a third of the world’s music, last month stopped licensing its music to TikTok after a year of tense negotiations. Many videos on the site containing Universal music have already been muted, but the dispute is escalating significantly this week, with millions more songs set to be silenced.