(CelebrityAccess) — Universal Music Group has pulled its repertoire from social media platform Triller after the label giant was unable to reach an agreement with the music app.
“We will not work with platforms that do not value artists,” UMG said in a statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times on Friday. “Triller has shamefully withheld payments owed to our artists and refuses to negotiate a license going forward.”
According to the Times, Triller’s prior agreement with UMG expired about a week ago but the company says it has not withheld payments from artists.
Triller also said they are prepared to do an end-run around UMG and license directly from artists.
“Triller does not need a deal with UMG to continue operating as it has been since the relevant artists are already shareholders or partners on Triller, and thus can authorize their usage directly,” the company said in a statement provided to the Times.
The L.A.-based Triller seeks to challenge the dominant short form social media video sharing app Tik Tok and allows users to post short videos and automatically sync them to background music through the use of A.I. The app was released in 2015 and as of October, has 100 million monthly active users, according to CEO Mike Lu.
The company gained new prominence in August when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok, Triller’s largest competitor and later joined Triller himself, posting his first video on August 15th.
