HAMILTON, MEAN GIRLS & More Could Leave TikTok Soon As as NPMA Pulls License

Music from Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Mean Girls, and more may be leaving TikTok as the National Music Publishers Association plans on ending their partnership with the platform at the end of the month.

Variety reports that the trade association does not plan on renewing their license with TikTok when it ends on April 30, 2024.

The decision could lead to more publishers joining Universal Music Group in banning their music from TikTok, notably major companies like Sony and Warner Chappell. While UMG insists that the move is for the best interests of the artists, TikTok has proven to be the most powerful way for artists to promote their music within the past five years.

NMPA is encouraging their members to negotiate directly with TikTok if they wish to continue to license their music to the platform. If they don't wish to continue, it will offer services to "discuss enforcement options."

As previously reported, cast recordings for Wicked, Spring Awakening, Les Miserables, and more were taken off of TikTok after UMG ended their agreement. The decision was mainly made due to the app's low royalty payments and policies on AI.

Warner Music ending their agreement with TikTok would lead to Atlantic Records' releases vanishing from the app. Atlantic Records has released cast albums from Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Mean Girls, & Juliet, and many more.

Also owned by Warner Music is First Night Records Ltd, a popular West End cast recording distributor. They have released alums for London productions of End of the Rainbow, Singin’ in the Rain, Sweeney Todd, Legally Blonde, and more.

Ghostlight Records is another subsidary of Warner Music, having released albums for In the Heights, A Strange Loop, Kimberly Akimbo, The Book of Mormon, 13, The Great Comet, Little Shop of Horrors, The Bridges of Madison County, and more.

Another frequent distributor of cast recordings is Masterworks Broadway, owned by Sony Music. This decision would lead to cast albums from Merrily We Roll Along, Shucked, Back to the Future, Funny Girl, and more being removed.

Founded in 1917, the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) is the trade association representing all American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA's mandate is to protect and advance the interests of music publishers and songwriters in matters relating to the domestic and global protection of music copyrights.