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TikTok users woke up Thursday and discovered that many videos using songs by stars like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Drake and Ariana Grande had gone silent, after a public brawl between TikTok and Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company.

It was a startling turn of events for the app’s creators and users, as well as for the music business, where heated negotiations over copyright permissions and royalty terms sometimes boil over into public view but rarely reach what one industry publication called the “nuclear option” — the full-scale removal of content from one of music’s biggest and most influential online outlets.

Here is a look at what happened and why, and some thoughts about what may come next.

Why did Universal Music leave TikTok?

On Tuesday, Universal Music, the global giant that releases music by hundreds of major artists, published a forceful open letter to TikTok as the end of its contract with the social media platform neared. Universal said that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, had not adequately addressed Universal’s concerns over A.I.-generated music on the platform, and that it would not agree to what Universal considered a satisfactory royalty rate.

“Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business,” the label said, “without paying fair value for the music.”

Universal noted that its existing deal with TikTok was set to expire on Wednesday, and the label said it would revoke its licenses — the legal permissions to use its music — if an agreement was not reached. The deadline came and went, and TikTok confirmed early Thursday that it had begun removing access to Universal’s vast catalog of songs.

What is Universal and which artists are involved?

Universal is the biggest of the three major music conglomerates — the others are Sony and Warner — that have deals with thousands of music stars to release their music. Besides Swift and Drake, its labels’ biggest names include Olivia Rodrigo, Morgan Wallen, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Noah Kahan, Post Malone and Lorde, and it has deals with K-pop giants like Stray Kids and NewJeans.

The company’s labels include Interscope, Geffen, Island, Def Jam, Capitol, Motown, Blue Note and Republic, and it also has an extensive music publishing division for songwriters.

Universal’s chief executive, Lucian Grainge, is a seasoned talent scout who, for more than a decade, has been one of the industry’s dominant corporate leaders. Most years, he tends to take No. 1 on Billboard’s annual “Power 100” list. This year, he is at No. 2 — behind Swift, with whom Grainge is said to have a close working relationship.

Universal has been aggressive in defending its artists’ rights and in pursuing the best deals it can get; last year, the company sued Triller, another social media app, saying it had not paid licensing fees. Recently, Grainge has been outspoken about the need for controls and industry standards regarding the use of artificial intelligence in music.

How will the takedowns work?

When the music industry has had issues in the past with streaming outlets like Spotify, it has had the ability — theoretically, anyway; it’s always complicated — to simply yank its content. That is what happened when Warner Music fought with YouTube for nine months in 2008 and 2009.

But TikTok is different. On the app, users upload their own video clips, and can draw from an audio library — much of it supplied by labels like Universal — to add background sounds. Artists and record labels also add their own content.

To comply with Universal’s withdrawals, TikTok removed the company’s songs from its music library, which made those songs unavailable for new clips. For older videos that already had music from Universal in them, TikTok on Thursday began “muting” the clips — deleting the audio entirely, leaving silent videos. That is what happened with videos from celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. the Rock), as well as on countless others; many included explanatory notes like “This sound isn’t available.”

On the official profile pages for artists like Swift, the sections that usually carried dozens of songs for users to feature went largely blank. (In some cases, brief snippets or user-generated mixes remained.)

The full process of removal is expected to take at least several days. A TikTok representative on Thursday did not say how many videos would be affected by Universal’s withdrawal, but it could conceivably be millions.

Why is it happening?

In some ways, this is an example of a conflict that has played out repeatedly in the media business over the last couple of decades, in which the innovations of tech companies — and, sometimes, the creativity of rule-skirting users — has run up against the music industry’s demands for control and fair compensation. This tension has been a driving force in the music industry, from Napster and YouTube to Pandora and, now, TikTok.

Universal’s concerns are real, and reflect some of the most urgent challenges in the music business today: artists’ need to make a decent living, the parameters of modern licensing contracts, the role of artificial intelligence. And in recent years music companies have begun to adjust to the reality that music fans’ attention is not solely focused on jukebox-type streaming outlets like Spotify or Apple Music, but also on an array of social platforms, like TikTok, where music may be just one attraction.

For TikTok, as with any social media company, the issue may involve how much leverage it is willing to relinquish to any single content partner. As important as music is on TikTok — in the past the company has said “music is at the heart of the TikTok experience” — it does not represent the entirety of the experience on the app; as any TikTok user knows, a song could simply be the audio wallpaper for a makeup tutorial or a plumbing how-to guide.

How might this affect musicians?

This is a key consideration for Universal, which says it is pursuing a better deal for its acts. At the same time, the longer the dispute drags on, the more it may hurt artists, at least in the short term. TikTok is a vital promotional outlet, and a generation of young fans now rely on the app to discover music, old and new.

Some of the most vital moments in music in recent years happened on TikTok, from the explosion of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” to the revival of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” For many artists today, being absent from TikTok would be like Madonna having a video disappear from MTV in the 1980s.

At the same time, though, artists are keenly aware of the need to secure better deals for their music, and of the low rates they face across the streaming landscape. Talk to an artist for two minutes about the business, and they will tell you they should make more money from streaming. They just do not want to sacrifice promotion, or their connection to fans, in the process.

What happens now?

We wait to see who blinks.

Universal’s roster of stars gives it leverage, and losing access to a library of thousands of the world’s most popular songs is not good for TikTok. Apps with a music component rely on their licensing arrangements with entertainment companies, and users expect to have a broad selection.

On the other hand, TikTok has licensing deals with many other music companies, and users could soon figure out that if they lose access to a Lady Gaga song, they could pick one from, say, Dua Lipa (a Warner artist) instead.

The greatest power, though, may reside with Universal’s artists, especially those who have new music to hype; if they feel that the conflict is starting to hurt them more than a new deal could help, they will make it known.

Last week, I discussed the origins of the “United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (UNUDHR) in FDR’s "Four Freedoms Speech" and the subsequent Atlantic Charter. The UNUDHR was laid on the foundation of the Anglo-American belief in human freedom as built up over a millennium of the development of the English Common Law, culminating in the American Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

It should always be noted and remembered that the American Declaration of Independence declares that “all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The American Declaration does not merely declare that all Americans “are created equal” and endowed with “unalienable Rights,” but that all people are so created and so endowed.

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Representatives from nations across the globe, under the leadership of U.N. leaders, composed the UNUDHR which was overwhelmingly approved as General Assembly Resolution 217A(III) on Dec. 10, 1948.

The Declaration concisely embraces the universal, all-encompassing assertion that every human being is “endowed” with these enumerated “universal Rights,” not just American citizens or British subjects.

That assertion by the U.N. of the universality of these basic human rights cannot be overestimated. The UNUDHR puts the U.N. General Assembly on record as proclaiming “a common standard of achievement” for all peoples and all nations “to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms … to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”

The declaration’s “preamble” declares its premise quite simply and boldly: “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” The declaration’s 30 articles all deal with basic human rights, which Americans would assume as a basic human right. However, for people in large parts of the world, they are far more aspirational than experienced.

The UNUDHR’s importance as a basic universal standard to which each nation is expected to adhere has been an enormously powerful and influential weapon in the hands of human rights activists as they have engaged with governments across the globe.

For example, Article 18 declares:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.”

This particular article has been critically important and useful as religious freedom has come under increasing challenge and pressure in the world. As Christianity has been growing at exponential rates in parts of the second and third world where there have not historically been large numbers of Christians, the persecution of Christians has increased dramatically.

I had the honor and privilege of serving as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2001-2004 and 2005-2012. As we interacted with countries across the globe on issues of religious freedom, we constantly had to combat the idea that we were trying to impose American values concerning religious freedom on other countries.

Our reply was to note that our standard was the U.N. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” of which their country was a signatory and that while we would wholeheartedly recommend the American system of separation of church and state as one which has produced more freedom of conscience for more people than any other national system yet devised, our standard is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a nation has the right to say that Islam, for instance, is the state religion and is given official and “favored” status in relation to other religions. What the UNUDHR does do, is insist that every individual in a country has the right “to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Many Islamic countries have had difficulty with this principle of changing one’s religion, but almost every Islamic country has signed the Universal Declaration, thus pledging themselves to this principle of freedom of conscience and religious expression.

I can bear witness from personal experience that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has proven to be a powerful tool in the struggle for basic universal human rights and has been used to advance those rights to varying degrees in many countries around the world.

Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.

Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.

Universal Destinations and Experience has confirmed plans for a UK theme park in Bedfordshire, with the company buying 480 acres of land in Stewartby.

Universal has revealed it is “exploring its feasibility for a potential park and resort” on a former brickworks site in the UK county.

A spokeswoman for the company told the BBC: “We recently acquired land in Bedford and are at the early stages of exploring its feasibility for a potential park and resort at this site.

“It will be many months before we are ready to make a decision to proceed and we look forward to engaging with all relevant stakeholders and the local community.”

The move would represent a further expansion of Universal’s theme parks business. The company is already building two new parks – Universal Kids Resort in Frisco, Texas, and Universal Epic Universe in Orlando. Universal is also launching a year-round horror experience at Area15 in Las Vegas.

The company currently operates theme parks in Hollywood and Orlando, and in Japan, Beijing and Singapore.

Universal’s statement continued: “We are always looking at new locations around the world, including in Europe, and the UK is an attractive place for a potential project.

“The UK has a large population, creative industries, strong tourism, and transportation infrastructure with close proximity to other parts of Europe.”

Universal buys brickworks for UK site

Universal said the location was selected due to its “”transportation connectivity to London and Europe”. More than half of the UK population lives within two hours of the site.

Tom Wootton, the elected mayor of Bedford Borough Council, said: “The suggestion of a major business investment is of course positive, nevertheless these are early days and much detailed work is required before any decisions are made.

“We very much welcome and are excited by the interest from Universal and the immense potential for it to be transformative for the borough.

“We’re committed to ensure that any plans align with the best interests of our residents.”

Images courtesy of Universal

2024 marks the 60th anniversary of a landmark in Hollywood and theme park history: The Universal Studios backlot tour. The original press release announcing the attraction is dated July 4, 1964. (I’d expect long lines if you happen to visit Universal Studios Hollywood on that day.)

The tour, now part of an entire theme park, was originally referred to as the Universal “Glamor Tram,” which brought L.A. tourists onto the actual Universal backlot. At launch, the trams ran only on weekdays and the tour lasted a whopping two hours. In those days, according to a Universal press release, the sights included “a brief make-up demonstration, a display of costumes by renowned costume designer Edith Head, an energetic two-man stunt performance and a tour of picturesque outdoor film sets.” Today, the ride is closer to 45 minutes in length, and it’s just one attraction in a theme park of movie and TV inspired rides.

Here are a few photos from the history of the Universal Studios backlot tour:

READ MORE: What the End of the Great Movie Ride Means For All Movie Rides

Through the years various elements of the backlot tour have come and gone, although some have remained for decades, like the house from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and an animatronic version of the shark from Jaws. Others have been introduced and then phased out within a few years. Did you know there was once a Battlestar Galactica part of the tram tour?

The last time I rode the tram tour, there was a part inspired by The Mummy movies. (This part of the tour closed in 2013.)

Movie-themed theme parks like Universal and Disney Hollywood Studios are less and less focused on how movies are made and more on giving visitors big thrills inspired by the films and shows they love. And of course Hollywood itself has changed too; the days when most effects were done practically with prosthetics and squibs and various other physical gags that could be shown off to people live and in person are long gone. You can’t really give people a tour of the computer that animated the CGI King Kong.

In that sense, the studio tour attraction is not only one of the very last vestiges of theme park history, it’s an evolving document of Hollywood history too. I don‘t know if they’ll keep the studio tour going at Universal for another 60 years. But I do know anytime I go to that park, I will ride it as long as it is there.