Is It Over Now? Taylor Swift’s music back on TikTok

Taylor Swift’s music has returned to TikTok following a dispute that led her label to stop licensing its content to the app.

Swift and other popular artists represented by Universal Music Group had their songs purged from the app in January when Universal and TikTok’s licensing deal expired.

The return of Swift’s music comes ahead of the release of her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19.

As of Thursday morning, multiple Swift songs, including big hits such as Cruel Summer, Is It Over Now? and You Belong with Me, were available to use on the app.

However, music from other Universal artists such as Ariana Grande and Rihanna have yet to be reinstated on TikTok.

While it is not immediately clear how Swift’s music has made its way back onto the app, the singer also owns the copyright to her music under a deal she struck with her label in 2018.

‘Sponsoring artist replacement’

TikTok is often credited for making songs enter the charts after going viral on the app.

Noah Kahan, who was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist this year, leveraged his viral success on the app into a successful music career.

“I didn’t realise it [fame] would happen so quickly and in such a big way,” Kahan told The New Yorker in February.

“I didn’t think it would be through viral success.  I f-----g hated social media. TikTok for me was just, like, what the f–k, dude? What am I gonna do here? I don’t get it.”

Earlier this year, both companies took turns blaming each other as to why fans could not use music by some of their favourite artists in their videos.

In an open letter published on Jan 30, Universal claimed that “ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music”.

Universal also said that it was concerned that Tiktok was allowing AI-generated content on the app and that it was “sponsoring artist replacement” by doing so.

Meanwhile, TikTok said that Universal was being greedy and it had managed to come to an agreement with every other label.

After music from Universal artists was pulled from TikTok, countless videos that used songs by artists signed to the label fell silent.