Taylor Swift’s music is back on TikTok following an ongoing dispute with her music distributor Universal Music Group over royalties.
The return of her songs on the popular social platform comes as she is set to release her latest and much-anticipated album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” next week. On Thursday, CNN was able to locate Swift’s songs in TikTok’s music catalog, which can be used for anyone creating new videos.
In January, Universal Music Group pulled music from its various artists, including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello and Rihanna, after releasing a statement titled, “An open letter to the artist and songwriter community — why we must call time out on TikTok,” in which it said its licensing agreement with the platform was expiring.
As a result, Universal artists’ music was removed from any TikTok videos with a notice that stated it had been removed due to copyright violation.
Universal Music Group said at the time TikTok proposed paying its artists and songwriters “a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay.”
“Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music,” it said in a statement.
Still, Universal said TikTok accounts for only about 1% of its total revenue.
The company also took issue with how TikTok is allowing AI-generated recordings to exist on the platform and is developing tools to “enable, promote and encourage” this type of music creation, which would “massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists.”
It’s unclear what terms have been met upon Swift’s return to TikTok. Universal Music Group, TikTok and Taylor Swift’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Music from other Universal artists’ is still not listed on the platform.
Swift announced her latest album while accepting her 13th Grammy award in February. Since then, she’s been teasing album covers, song titles and a countdown to its Friday April 19 release on social platforms. It will be her 11th studio album.
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