TikTok without all that music is... weird

Someone who is good at the economy please help TikTok recover from UMG’s campaign to wipe its artists’ music from the platform. Gen Z is dying without their daily dose of Taylor Swift.

Even if you haven’t been keeping up with the conflict between TikTok and Universal Music Group—the conglomerate that represents major artists like Swift, Bad Bunny, Drake, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, and more—you still may have noticed that your For You Page is a whole lot quieter (or at least more out of tune) than normal. Earlier this week, the label made good on threats to remove all of their music from the app, citing concerns over “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”

TikTok, on the other hand, is claiming that UMG isn’t really protecting anything but their own books. In a statement sent to The A.V. Club on Wednesday, a representative from the app wrote:

It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.

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Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent.

TikTok has been able to reach “artist-first” agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.

While we obviously can’t speak to how all of this is affecting Drake or Ariana Grande, TikTok is right in that the move is clearly having a major impact on its fans. Y’all… the kids are losing their minds.

Instead of doing something crazy like, oh we don’t know, listening to any other artists, TikTok users have instead taken the totally reasonable path of just singing their favorite disappeared songs themselves. Quite badly, we might add. In the last two days, the app has been overrun with dance clips and fan edits scored to the type of “Cruel Summer” rendition you might hear after everyone’s lost count of their refills at the BYOB karaoke bar. It’s honestly kind of charming, even if it’s in a completely deranged way.

The onslaught of off-pitch clips isn’t liable to end any time soon; brace yourselves for a whole bunch of supposedly romantic Taylor x Travis edits over someone scream-singing “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” this weekend. All of this is to say: if you miss the days when YouTube was primarily a receptacle for terrible American Idol auditions or you have a really bad voice and really big dreams, you’re in for a real treat. But if you’re a vocal coach or someone who cares about their ears in any significant way… run.