Will TikTok and Universal's Disagreement Be an Opportunity for Instagram?: Audiences Speak Out

[tasnimsanika00]

Since its arrival, TikTok has managed to be on most of the conversation topics, especially among the younger generations , and thanks to the trends created within the platform, as well as the viral audios, the current affairs of the social network's users are within it. Once again, TikTok has been trending due to the commotion caused by the contractual disputes with Universal Music Group (UMG) that has caused a large number of songs, including those of important artists such as Taylor Swift, to no longer be available on the platform.

As a result, SAMY Alliance, the global agency for comprehensive communications, digital marketing and social media services , has carried out an analysis of conversations on social networks through tools powered by AI in order to understand the impact that this type of action could have on an audience as loyal as TikTok's, which has currently positioned itself as the leader in the popularity race among young Millennials and Generation Z.

This is how the agency was able to identify 21,080 social media posts addressing the situation of TikTok and Universal Music between January 28, 2024 and February 4, 2024. In this analysis, any media presence was excluded, thus analyzing only the organic conversations of users.

Strong discontent among users
By digging deeper into the sentiment analysis carried out by Samy Alliance, it was possible to identify that almost 50% of the total mentions on the topic were negative , clearly indicating the widespread discontent and frustration of users. Taking into account that users spend an average of 52 minutes a day on the application , a significant change in behavior can be foreseen that will affect both brands and content creators.

On the other hand, the spotlight also went to big artists like Taylor Swift , being one of the singers with the most songs positioned in the TOP of the platform. In fact, among the more than 21 thousand mentions that were analyzed, 20% were related to the artist. Likewise, other artists like Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Drake, Billie Eilish, Rosalia, Olivia Rodrigo or Karol G were also affected, as well as content creators who have shown their disappointment with this new regulation that does not allow them to use hit songs for their videos or to be able to promote their content.

Could this be a new opportunity for Instagram Reels?
While this situation has generated great discontent in general among the platform's users, it has also given rise to the exploitation of creativity and some of the artists who were affected have created covers of songs such as the singer Euan Blackman, who published a version of the song "betty" from 2020 with the text "So all of Taylor Swift's music is being removed from TikTok but it's okay because you can use this sound instead", which has led to greater attention on his account.

Another singer, Talia Sporkin, posted her cover of the 2023 track “Sl*t!” with the canada whatsapp data caption “UMG deleted your sound? Use this instead,” and invited requests for Swift’s songs to cover via the comments section; these videos currently have over 70K likes.

In the face of all this, another of the questions that has arisen is the debate about whether this measure, which could have a very negative effect on TikTok, could represent a new opportunity for Instagram reels as they continue to offer songs from UMG .

While TikTok appears to be holding on to its reign with its short-form video format , it may experience a decline in activity due to the absence of artists' songs as users themselves try to find alternatives on other platforms. For their part, brands must also stay abreast of the changes in order to best adapt to the different changes in user behavior that may arise.

Newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletter!
WhatsApp
Follow MarketingDirecto.com on WhatsApp