Music copyright has been the bane of any content creator’s life for years now. Creators have to remove music from content they’re referencing, content gets struck down if they do, and the rest of us have to listen to the same elevator tune whenever we’re watching a piece of content.
TikTok was the saviour to all that. Everything was on the table, and recording labels soon saw the merit of going viral on the platform. But could all that be about to change? Bloomberg is reporting that TikTok is looking to scale back the use of songs on the app.
As per Bloomberg: “TikTok is limiting the number of songs that users can post on its app, an experiment to assess how much they value music in their videos. Content creators won’t be able to use certain songs, the company said in a statement.”
“This will only affect certain music and is scheduled work while we analyze how sounds are accessed and added to videos, as well as looking to improve and enhance the wider Sounds Library,” TikTok said.
Right now, the scaling back of songs on the platform is being tested in Australia, due to holders of music rights pushing TikTok for a greater share of the revenue from advertising.
Bloomberg said: “Music companies would like ByteDance to invest more in paid streaming and link TikTok to Resso, a paid streaming service also owned by the company. That way ByteDance could use TikTok, which has attracted more than 1 billion users, as a funnel to the more lucrative music-streaming business.”
