WIN Calls Out TikTok Indie Label ‘Negotiations,’ Warns of ‘Risks to Cultural Diversity, Market Access, and Fair Payment’

Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) CEO Noemí Planas, who’s calling out TikTok’s alleged decision to forgo renewing with Merlin in favor of engaging in hardball direct negotiations with indies. Photo Credit: Jacobo Medrano/WIN

Last week, ahead of the TikTok-Merlin deal’s expiration, leaks shed light on the app’s alleged hardball offers to individual indie labels. Now, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) and several member organizations are speaking out against the possible attempt “to pay less for music.” WIN as well as the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and others weighed in on the matter today, following the mentioned contract-detail leaks. As we covered at length, multiple indie-label sources have described receiving standardized contracts (not being engaged directly) proposing far lower payout terms than under the Merlin union.

And with just 17 days until that Merlin-TikTok pact’s expiration – and even less time than that before indies’ works will be ripped down in the absence of direct deals – the clock is ticking for labels to choose between accepting allegedly reduced terms and exiting the ultra-popular app.

Bearing in mind this far-from-ideal backdrop (especially for indies, of course), WIN CEO Noemí Planas is voicing the belief that “TikTok’s decision poses risks to cultural diversity, market access, and fair payment for independents.”

Policymakers, the WIN head of nearly two years proceeded, should “regulate the tech sector to ensure a truly competitive market where creators’ rights are protected from abusive and monopolistic behavior.”

Meanwhile, Richard Burgess, CEO of the aforementioned A2IM, is also speaking out against TikTok’s unwillingness to renew its Merlin tie-up and doubling down on calls for legislative action. “TikTok’s unwillingness to negotiate a licensing deal with Merlin is just the latest example of the platform doing whatever it can to avoid compensating artists fairly,” communicated Burgess. “Now, more than ever, we need Congress to enact the Protect Working Musicians Act and give musicians, songwriters, independent labels, and publishers the ability to negotiate collectively in the marketplace.”

(The Protect Working Musicians Act was introduced in Congress in October of 2021 and reintroduced with some expansions in September of 2023, but remains in committee.)

Additionally, the Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), the Record Label Industry Association of Korea (LIAK), the Associação Brasileira da Música Independente (ABMI), and Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ) likewise provided statements criticizing TikTok’s strategy and calling in more words for a renewed Merlin agreement.Needless to say, time will tell how the episode concludes; in explaining the decision not to re-up with Merlin, TikTok pointed to purported fraud-detection shortcomings from the indie collective.

However, the available evidence suggests that the split could also deliver material licensing savings to a layoff-minded TikTok, which, notwithstanding the standardized contracts it’s reportedly sending smaller indies, is said to be negotiating directly with larger players.

At the risk of stating the obvious, things would perhaps unfold differently if one or more of these larger players took a dealmaking stand on behalf of the wider indie sector.