TikTok, a platform with a musical note as its symbol. Where fans of famous artists can share express how their love for the artist’s songs. Where aspiring musicians promote their music in order to stop living in their parents’ basement. A platform that’s pretty much built to play music from all around the world. Unfortunately, that all ended when on Feb. 1, where Universal Music Group (UMG) decided to pull out each and every single song from artists who are signed to UMG. That includes almost all of the famous artists we know today, from Taylor Swift to Frank Sinatra. This leaves people with scraps of music to enjoy knowing that all their favorites have been removed.

Not only does this make TikTok less enjoyable, but it also stops people known as “TikTok editors” from creating the content that they worked so hard on. I think this is horrible because these editors are the ones carrying the fandoms of today’s generation with their 15-second high-quality videos. Now, they can be seen losing their mind over the fact that all their edits have lost their value and some are even trying to repost them with a song that barely fits such as Beethoven’s. “Symphony No. 6.”

Besides the fans and the edits, this also affects artists such as Conan Gray who’s unable to promote his new music video because of the regulations which is a struggle because TikTok is where people mainly get news from artists. Otherwise, fans wouldn’t know when a new album is going to come out.

I’m sure that some people on TikTok wouldn’t have the same music taste as they do today, including me. Over the years, TikTok has been the main reason why small artists get to walk on red carpets such as Laufey, who recently won a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. I’m afraid to say this, but Laufey wouldn’t have made it without the fame she got from TikTok. If she hadn’t promoted her music on that app, who knows where she’d be?

 It’s devastating that the main part that held TikTok together has been removed after seven years. However, it doesn’t actually affect anything as the world is still spinning and people continue to mindlessly scroll on TikTok. It all just gives artists and fans fewer opportunities to enjoy music.