News Social Media Why TikTok's Deal for Licensed Music Matters You can safely use more music in your videos by Freelance Technology Reporter Josh Hawkins is a freelance writer for Lifewire that loves writing about the latest tech and gadgets that help make people’s lives easier. As an avid gamer, he also enjoys diving deep into the technology that helps bring those kinds of experiences to life. our editorial process Joshua Hawkins Published February 10, 2021 03:00PM EST fact checked by Richard Scherr Fact checker Rich Scherr is a seasoned technology and financial journalist who spent nearly two decades as the editor of Potomac and Bay Area Tech Wire. Our Fact-Checking Process Twitter LinkedIn Article fact-checked on Feb 10, 2021 Richard Scherr Tweet Share Email Social Media Phones Internet & Security Computers Smart & Connected Life Home Theater Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming View More Key Takeaways TikTok’s new deal with the Universal Music Group will give users access to more songs without having to worry about copyright notices.TikTok now has agreements with three major music labels.Experts say this is a good move for users, giving both TikTokers and artists more options. Harold M. Lambert / Getty Images Grab your phone and get ready to jam out to more of your favorite music, thanks to a new deal between TikTok and the Universal Music Group. TikTok is expanding the amount of music available to its users under this agreement, which the social media app says will help content creators use licensed music, and could even lead to more "ambitious experimentation, innovation, and collaboration" in the future. It’s a smart move for both TikTok and UMG, though experts say content creators are the real winners. "This is a good thing for TikTok users," Adam Chase, president of Music Minds, told Lifewire in an email. "This deal will let users use UMG songs without restriction. Previously, there were hard caps on how long you could actually use [copyrighted music], and you could still be stuck with a copyright notice despite staying under the time limit." Chart Toppers The reason agreements like this are happening is because of how much of an impact the video-sharing app is having on the music industry. In June 2019, The Ringer spoke with Sueco the Child, a rapper who spent years trying to break out and go viral so he could turn his love for music and hip-hop into a career. Just two months prior, Sueco’s life had changed forever when he saw how quickly rapper Lil Nas X jumped to the top of the charts with his song "Old Town Road," which found an audience on the app through various challenges and dances by popular TikTokers. According to The Ringer, this was the moment the lightbulb went off, and Sueco reached out to a friend—who at the time had hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok—asking him to include his song "Fast" in one of his videos. The result was over 3.2 million TikTok videos featuring the song, and more than 16 million plays of the song on Spotify. Sueco isn’t the only artist who has seen success thanks to the shareable nature of TikTok’s videos. Others like Benee also have seen their songs blow up, with "Supalonely" being featured in videos from popular TikTokers like Charli D’Amelio. From there, things continued to skyrocket, and the song ended 2020 as No. 88 on Billboard’s Hot 100. TikTok has over 689 million monthly active users worldwide, according to DataReportal. Seeing the success of these artists pushed forward by the platform and its content creators is exactly why these kinds of deals are so important. Smart Moves TikTok has built a unique position, with its massive audience able to quickly popularize music. The social media app based around sharing short videos also signed an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment in November 2020, meaning this deal with UMG is just the latest indicator of how vital TikTok has become to the music industry. TikTok’s agreement with these labels will help content creators avoid the pitfalls that have befallen others on sites like YouTube and Twitch, where users of the latter have been hit by copyright notices from years-old clips. "This is a good thing for TikTok users. This deal will let users use UMG songs without restriction." "I think all these sites go through a stage where they can sort of get away with more than their predecessors," Sekou Campbell, a partner in the Philadelphia offices of Culhane Meadows, a law firm, told Lifewire in an email. "But eventually, once the large rights owners take note, they often come up with very similar structures to ensure that rights holders are properly compensated and have appropriate controls over their work." In TikTok’s case, though, the coimpany is getting ahead of the issue and working to ensure its users—and the artists whose music is being used—are given everything they need to succeed. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit