TikTok mutes more songs amid battle with Universal Music

has been forced to pull more music from its platform as a copyright dispute with Universal Music Group (UMG) continues. UMG has recently owned or distributed from TikTok, including songs from superstars like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. The backlash is already affecting songs published by UMG, with millions more songs expected to be muted on TikTok by the end of this week.

The latest step in this saga affects works by artists who have partnered with songwriters who are under contract with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), according to . Due to an issue called split copyright, if a writer employed with UMPG has contributed to a song in any way, that song may have to be removed from TikTok. So artists who have collaborated with the likes of Swift, Adele, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Ice Spice, Elton John, Harry Styles and SZA could see their songs disappear from TikTok and silenced in videos that currently they use them. The move will prevent more artists from listing their work on the most important music promotion platform.

According to , UMG removed around three million songs from TikTok after the agreement over its catalog of records expired. UMG’s deal with TikTok for its publishing catalog (which spans around four million songs) ends later this week, at which point all relevant songs may disappear from the short video service.