Making TikTok Videos? Ask First: Is The Music Copyrighted?

Movie studios have entire departments devoted to obtaining the rights to use music in their films. Without appropriate permissions, the studios or producers can face long and expensive copyright infringement lawsuits.

Most TikTok users don’t have to worry about that potential problem. The app has the Internet’s largest library of trending songs, and lots of other music, that’s free and legal for content creators to use, as long as they have personal and not business TikTok accounts.

However, influencers and other experienced creators plan their TikTok content well before they sit down to record and edit their videos — and often, they imagine using a very specific piece of music that perfectly matches the action they’re going to film.

If that music is copyrighted but not in the TikTok Sound library, though, the creators might be inviting big headaches.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is Copyrighted Music?

In a nutshell, the person or people who write a song own the rights to its use and performance, unless they’ve later sold the rights to another person or company.

No matter who owns the song, it’s protected by copyright law. And anyone wanting to use it for any purpose must have permission, usually granted in exchange for a monetary payment. The more popular the song, the more the rights will generally cost. Famously, Beatles songs weren’t often used on TV and in movies for many years because the asking price was so high.

Many copyright owners strike “blanket deals” with media companies, social media platforms, and other high-volume users. They give permission for the use of their songs or catalogs for extremely large payments. That’s how TikTok can have such an enormous Sounds library available to creators; the app has paid a lot for the privilege.

Those rights do not extend to the use of songs by TikTok users with business accounts, however. A different library of music that’s been licensed for commercial purposes is available to those users.

That leaves one big question: how can content creators use songs that haven’t been licensed by the app?

How to Use Copyrighted Music on TikTok

When a song isn’t in the TikTok library, you can’t just upload it to the app and include it in your TikTok post. The song is still probably protected by copyright.

Here’s the good news: it’s unlikely that you’ll get sued for using it, since the TikTok algorithms constantly scan all content for the use of copyrighted music. Videos that violate copyright agreements are usually removed from the app quickly, with the creator receiving a warning. Continued violations can lead to account suspensions or bans.

There are several ways to avoid the problem, though.

1. Use the TikTok Sounds library. This is the safest approach, since there are more than a million songs in the library and there are certain to be at least a few that match your video. Even better, all of the app’s trending songs are available, and the use of trending songs helps attract viewers to your post.
2. Use copyright-free music. Simply do a Google search, and you’ll find lots of copyright-free libraries with music you can use for free or for a small fee.
3. Use your own music, if you’re the musician who created it. It’s best to work with a music distributor that has a licensing agreement with TikTok; that way, you can upload the song to the distributor’s platform and have it approved by the platform. The added benefit is that other users will also be able to use the song, giving you more exposure for your work. If you don’t use a distributor, you’ll have to separately prove to TikTok that you created the music and own the rights.
4. Pay for the rights to a song. This is an expensive approach to take for a simple TikTok video, but it’s possible to negotiate with the copyright holder if you’d like. You’ll still have to prove to the platform that you’ve purchased the right to use the song.

You’ll receive a notification in your Inbox if the algorithms believe you’ve violated copyright rules. If you have permission to use the song in question, you’ll be given the opportunity to submit a “Counter Notification Form” and prove that your use of the song is legitimate.

Pro tip: If you’re using music that isn’t from the TikTok library, the app provides a helpful tool to check if you’ll have copyright issues.

Just go to your TikTok profile, open the menu (three horizontal lines at the top right of the screen), and choose “TikTok Studio.” Find the “Creator tools” link and turn on the toggle switch next to “Video sound copyright check.” Once that’s done, you’ll get an automatic on-screen notification if you try to post a video with what the app thinks is copyrighted music.

Music always makes a TikTok video more enjoyable and compelling. Using copyrighted music without having the rights, though, makes creating that video more trouble than it needs to be.