Why Some Indie Artists Are Also Struggling With UMG’s TikTok Ban

When Uber Eats used mazie‘s “Dumb Dumb” in a commercial that played during the last Super Bowl, she ordinarily would have used the sought-after synch to promote the 2021 song relentlessly to her 375,000 TikTok followers. But her label, Goodbye Records, is distributed through Universal’s Virgin Music Group, which pulled its music from the social media platform at the beginning of February after negotiations for a new licensing deal fell apart. “It’s insane,” mazie says. “My song was just in a Super Bowl commercial, and I have to repromote it [by] using other people’s ripped versions of my song on the platform.”

The singer-songwriter, whose track went viral last year and says it “changed my life in every single way,” is one of many frustrated developing artists signed to or distributed by the world’s largest music company. They all have similar complaints: Their label contacts have spent years instructing them to focus the bulk of their marketing efforts on TikTok and its 1 billion-plus monthly active users. With their music no longer on the platform, they are scrambling for alternate ways to be heard.

“A lot of us are left at the drawing board again, especially when we’ve gotten an artist over the anxiety of putting themselves out there on TikTok,” says Sabrina Finkelstein, manager of Los Angeles singer Kristiane. “Now that that’s gone, it brings you almost to square one.”

Kristiane is signed to Fader, a label distributed by UMG’s Virgin Music Group, so she’s building buzz for her upcoming Stray Dog EP by deemphasizing TikTok and talking to fans on Instagram Broadcast Channels and other platforms. “We’re putting up lost-dog posters all over New York and other cities,” says Finkelstein, who is also A&R director for the Sony Music-owned RECORDS label. “Small things you can do to bring it off TikTok and into the real world.”

Springfield, Mo., folk-country band Pawns or Kings can no longer post its 2022 track “Anymore” on TikTok, because Universal bought its distributor, Ingrooves, and merged it with Virgin Music Group — even after singer Edward Stengel spent $7,000 of his own money on a video. “That song was always our spearhead song,” says Stengel, who is still promoting the track on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram while posting older material released through independent label ONErpm on TikTok. But Pawns or Kings’ early music is darker than its current work, Stengel says, which makes the stopgap strategy “an abrupt pivot” for the band’s image.

Canadian rapper bbno$ says his 2021 track “Edamame,” which has nearly 426 million Spotify plays, was “having a moment” on TikTok when the UMG ban took effect. The artist had licensed the song to mTheory’s distribution division for a five-year period — the same mTheory that UMG acquired in 2022 (putting its top executives in charge of Virgin). “I’m actually fully independent. It was just this one deal that looped all the songs together, and I got fucked,” says bbno$, who is considering altering the song with pitch-correction and wild sound effects — such as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants repeating, “I’m ready!” — to avoid detection from digital sweeps.

L.A. rock band Dead Posey, which released its single “Zombies” just days before the ban, sped up its songs on TikTok by 5% — an effective solution, although artists can’t link unofficial songs to official Spotify streams. “It has not been taken down,” says singer Danyell Souza, whose label, Position Music, has a Virgin distribution deal. Adds guitarist Tony Fagenson: “We’re hopeful this resolves soon in a favorable way to artists. In the meantime, we have to play some tricks to keep using this platform.”

UMG-signed and -distributed artists are also turning to their most potent asset on TikTok: fans. One of Kristiane’s followers recently posted a lip-sync video to a concert track, declaring, “At least UMG can’t take away my live audios.” Finkelstein is supportive of this approach. “No matter what, the fans are going to find a way to share their artists’ music and support them,” she says. “There are ways around it.”

This story will appear in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.