Written By: Leah C. Stevenson, Esq.
If you’re like me, you love to see a funny TikTok video with your favorite song used as the audio. During the pandemic, we saw the rise of the virtual music era and countless music artists took to TikTok to promote their music and many artists were able to convert followers into true fans. Even many of the well-established music artists like Doja cat, Blxst, and Lil Nas X had their music go viral on TikTok and this allowed them to generate millions of streams on the digital streaming platforms (DSPs) like Apple Music and Spotify,
Some people may think that if your song goes viral or is used as a trending sound on TikTok then this would translate to royalties, streams, and millions of dollars in your pocket, but that’s not necessarily true. Let’s dive a bit deeper into the benefits for music artists who use TikTok and also how the platform pays royalties to music artists as well.
What are the benefits for music artists who use TikTok?
First and foremost, TikTok is a great branding tool where users are able to share relatable, funny, and informative short form video content with others. For music artists, TikTok is a great way to promote current music, build anticipation for future releases, and even revive attention and promotion of an artist’s past music. Due to the interactive nature of the platform, artists can go viral at the drop of a hat which allows music artists to build a loyal and engaging fanbase in a short amount of time.
Whereas normal marketing and advertising tactics still work, TikTok gets an artist’s music, brand, and name in front of thousands of users daily which can help an artist gain exposure, fame, and popularity almost overnight. TikTok users can experience extreme reach and engagement on the platform which not only helps music artists garner genuine and truly interested fans, but it also facilitates fans to stream the music off the app. According to a study that MRC Data collected for music analytics, “Songs that trend on TikTok often end up charting on the Billboard 100 or Spotify Viral 50. And 67% of the app’s users are more likely to seek out songs on music-streaming services after hearing them on TikTok.” This means that the songs trending on TikTok directly correlate to the songs that are topping the charts. So, if your song goes viral or is trending on TikTok, there is a likelihood that your music can do substantial numbers and streams as well.
How does TikTok compensate music artists?
With this in mind, I’m sure you’re wondering… is TikTok just a great marketing tool for music artists to promote their music and brand or does TikTok actually pay royalties out to music artists as well? The answer is yes, TikTok actually pays royalties to music artists. It seems TikTok is very aware of the importance of music, audio, and sounds on the visual platform and directly compensates artists by paying royalties for the music played within the platform.
However, contrary to popular belief, views do not equal royalties on TikTok. Viral and trending songs do have a better chance of garnering TikTok royalties and streams on Apple music or Spotify, but just because a song went viral on TikTok doesn’t mean the music artist got paid thousands of dollars in royalties.
TikTok calculates royalties based on market share or the amount of times a user uses the music for a new video creation on the platform. This means TikTok pays artists $0.030 for each new video that uses the music artist’s song. Doesn’t sound like that much right? That’s because it really isn’t. It would take a music artist 1,000 new videos to make $30 on TikTok. But let’s not count TikTok out just because of this. The platform allows music artists to market and promote their brand so that users leave TikTok and stream the music artist’s music on Apple music or Spotify where they receive royalties for each of those streams. Despite the fact that music artists may not make substantial revenue for each new TikTok video created featuring their music, the platform allows music artists to build strong fanbases, market themselves authentically, and truly pushes users to go stream the music on Spotify or Apple Music as well.
Overall, a music artist’s TikTok presence is very useful to their entire brand. They can relate and interact with their fans, and they can gain popularity rapidly due to the viral nature of the platform. More importantly, TikTok helps bring awareness to new artists and new music. If the music or artist takes off, TikTok pays them royalties for each new video generated that features the song. With the popularity generated from the platform, most users leave TikTok and stream or download music from these music artists on Apple music and Spotify. Prospective record labels, agencies, and management companies look significantly to a music artist’s TikTok presence and to a music artist’s streams on Spotify and Apple Music to gauge how well their music is doing in the industry.
A piece of advice… if you are a music artist or you know a music artist who isn’t on TikTok yet… tell them to go make one and start making content now. Thank me later.
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