Music giant deploys the ‘nuclear option’ against TikTok

(Image: Emil Lendof/The Wall Street Journal, Getty Images)

Sun, 03 Mar 2024

By Anne Steele and Meghan BobrowskyGwen Stefani wanted her new song to have its day. The No Doubt frontwoman and star solo artist planned to release a duet with husband Blake Shelton in February and promote it with a pre-Super Bowl performance. A week before the release of Purple Irises, however, her label’s parent company, Universal Music Group, took the unusual step of pulling all of its artists’ songs off TikTok after reaching a stalemate in contract negotiations with the social media platform. The move meant...

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