• by Colin Kirkland , April 19, 2024

As Universal Music Group continues to battle with TikTok over music licensing rights, Taylor Swift -- possibly the most popular singer-songwriter in the world -- has partnered with TikTok to launch a new in-app campaign to promote her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Fans will find TikTok's Swift music hub by searching the album and clicking the banner at the top of the page.

From there, users can earn “special entry points” for completing a list of themed challenges and unlock various album-themed profile frames, in addition to other rewards. Fans can also post a video using the album’s hashtag to win the chance to be showcased in the hub's “fan spotlight.”

Swift's partnership with TikTok comes days after the artist uploaded her music catalog onto the ByteDance-owned platform.

Her songs were originally taken down in February after Universal failed to renew its license with TikTok, which affected not only Swift, but other popular artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, and Billie Eilish.

Universal's failure to renew was rooted in its belief that TikTok was unwilling to pay “fair value for the music,” and for “allowing the platform to be flooded with A.I.-generated recordings” that took away deserved royalties for human artists.

TikTok then accused Universal of prioritizing “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters,” due to the fact that TikTok has become a leading contributor to global music discovery and engagement.

In response, TikTok accused Universal of putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”

While it is still unclear how Swift legally got her songs back on the short-form video sharing platform, it’s possible the artist, who owns the master recordings of her songs and has over 25 million followers on the app, cut a separate deal with TikTok.