TikTok Launches Sounds for Business to Help Brands with Their Music Needs

Source: TikTok

TikTok has announced the launch of TikTok Sounds for Business, a new collection of custom sounds designed as templates to help businesses with content creation. The collection is available in the Commercial Music Library and features music, voiceovers, sound cues, and more. Businesses can use it in both organic and paid content.

Why It Matters

Sounds for Business is a notable launch because music is one of the driving factors for engaging videos on TikTok. According to TikTok, 68% of users say they remember a brand better, and 62% say they are curious to learn about a brand when a brand's TikTok video features a preferred song. However, brands are limited to royalty-free music unless they secure licensing. Because of this, most brands are limited to the generic audio available on the Commercial Music Library.

With Sounds for Business, brands, especially small businesses, get a set of audio that is designed specifically for their use case, such as highlighting their products in videos. Most importantly, the music can be used in organic and paid content, giving brands the ability to use it however they see fit without having to spend money on licenses or worry about using it legally.

Many brands complain about not being able to use commercial music like creators, especially considering the impact that a popular or trending song in a video can have on performance. Sounds for Business doesn't solve this issue, but it does provide an alternative.

What Could Come in the Future

However, on the moves made by other platforms in securing more flexible licenses from major labels, I believe that TikTok will eventually roll out an initiative or partnership with labels that will make it easier for brands to license select popular and trending songs.

Brands would have a more streamlined way of obtaining licenses for popular and trending music, which can boost their organic and paid content performance. TikTok can add another revenue stream by selling licenses on behalf of label partners, and major labels and their artists can generate more money by licensing out their music to brands with ad dollars.

TikTok could charge brands in different ways. They could have a marketplace where brands could license music in just a few clicks, similar to YouTube Creator Music, and charge a flat fee rate for a certain period of time. Or, they could charge based on the performance of content that uses licensed music.

The intersection of music and social media continues to be fascinating. As someone who got their start in content creation around the music industry, it's exciting to see these developments.

Increased Support for Small Businesses

Beyond music, Sounds for Business is also TikTok's latest move to cater to small businesses. Previously, it rolled out new features for Promote, its in-app advertising tool, that makes it easier for small businesses with limited resources to take advantage of its advertising solutions to reach bigger audiences.