Triller, Universal Music Group Trade Shade as Licensing Battle Escalates Publicly
Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorThe war of words between Ryan Kavanaugh’s Triller and Universal Music Group escalated Friday, after UMG pulled its catalog from the video-sharing app citing Triller’s failure to pay licensing fees for songs used on its service.Early Friday, Universal Music said it was removing its music from Triller — which positions itself as a rival to popular social-video app TikTok — because, “Triller has shamefully withheld payments owed to our artists and refuses to negotiate a license going forward.”“We will not work with platforms that do not value artists,” the music giant said.Triller was blindsided.