TikTok just gained a major partner in Warner Music Group (WMG) at a time when the industry’s major record labels are calling on streaming services to improve royalty payouts for artists and rights holders. Meanwhile, content creators like music reviewers and reactors are left wondering if the deal will alleviate some tension over copyright strikes—as major record labels like Warner Music Group have a history of demonetizing creators on platforms like YouTube, despite these creators contributing to the hype machine surrounding new releases.
On its face, TikTok’s multiyear deal with Warner Music (the financial terms of which were not disclosed) will, in theory, give TikTok creators improved access to the catalogs from Warner Music and Warner Chappell Music to use on their TikTok videos and in CapCut, the editing platform owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, without worrying about copyright violations.
But the landscape for record labels pursuing copyright claims against creators remains highly contentious, and it remains too early to see how—or if—the revenue generated from the TikTok–WMG partnership will trickle down to the creators who are making music clips from the Warner Music catalog go viral on the platform.
And it seems that TikTok may be borrowing some ideas from YouTube’s copyright playbook. …
