So, as February came around, you might have noticed some of your best TikTok videos have suddenly been muted, without any warning. This has caused a great deal of concern amongst content creators, but, unfortunately, there’s no fix.
Firstly, we want to make it clear, it isn’t you. Without sounded like the cliché break up line, it really isn’t. In fact, to show it’s happening to everyone, we’ve attached one of our videos above. There, you can see, there is no sound available. The whole video has been muted.
Were we warned? Not exactly. We knew it was coming, but not through the platform informing us. We haven’t had any messages to say we’d used a copyrighted sound unfairly, or, that our video breached any terms and conditions. So, why is the audio now muted?
Well, simply because, we don’t own the sound. Not only do we not own it, but, Universal Music do. You might be thinking, well, other videos haven’t been muted. This will be because they don’t use songs that are protected through Universal Music.
Not all audio is being muted on TikTok
If you’ve created video skits to other trending audio, or used music from the TikTok library which has been placed there by another music company, your video will be fine. You’ll notice the audio is still there and the video runs as it should.
However, if the song used belongs to Universal Music, aka, they own the rights to the track, your video will no longer have sound. This is all down to an argument between them and TikTok. The two companies couldn’t come to an agreement over pay.
Universal Music believe TikTok are underpaying massively and therefore artists are being affected. Whereas, TikTok are calling Universal greedy. While both may have their own valid points, the argument does seem a little school playground if you ask us.
Simply because of the way both companies have lashed out publicly about each other. We’re all behind fair pay for music artists, but the name-calling between the companies seems a little trivial in our opinion. However, content creators will now be suffering the most.
Universal Music pulled its entire music catalogue from TikTok
They’ll all notice many of their videos becoming silent. As of the end of January 2024, Universal Music pulled its entire library from TikTok. So, any song owned by them will have been removed from the platform. Leaving videos muted.
Unfortunately, despite it mostly effecting content creators, there’s nothing that can be done. You will need to recreate videos with different sounds. Either removing the old videos which are muted, or, creating the same content again with new sounds.
This isn’t a case of TikTok banning your video because you’ve breached any rules. Instead, it’s all down to their own issues. Content creators who rely on popular music for their videos will have to come up with new ways of expressing themselves on the app now.
Please note: We have another article about why your video may have been muted if this is not relevant.
