TikTok, the pandemic’s golden child that couldn’t be banned, is under fire once again. This time, Universal Music Group (UMG) is calling for a ‘time out’ on TikTok as its licensing negotiations with the platform have failed. It’s no secret that TikTok contains huge amounts of music, but as with most social media platforms, identifying and paying for that music tends to become an issue. As platforms like TikTok explode in growth, they struggle to manage the content uploaded to their sites, and don’t want to compromise their revenue with music licenses.
UMG states their analysis of TikTok shows the app has more music than any other social media platform. At Pex, we track music across digital platforms like TikTok, and have released data reports on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram in the past. We dove into TikTok ourselves and can confirm, to no one’s surprise, that it’s full of music. But just how much? We break it down for you, along with some other interesting stats, in our TikTok data report.
Methodology: a quick note on Pex data
Pex indexes select digital platforms and identifies music using AI-powered content identification technology. We collect and actively update public metadata from videos, which includes views, comments, likes, dislikes and other information. We have no visibility into private and unlisted content, nor do we have any information about the consumers of the content. All the data in this article is based on performance of all publicly available videos as of December 31, 2023.
The value of music on digital platforms
Why does it matter how many videos online contain music? Because music is copyrighted content and has to be licensed and paid for. When users include music in their videos – especially when those videos contribute to revenue – they are benefitting from someone else’s work. When these videos are uploaded to platforms which become hugely popular and start generating revenue themselves, you have million- or billion-dollar businesses profiting off the use of music. If licenses aren’t in place between the rightsholders and the platform, this in turn makes it hard to compensate artists and songwriters fairly for their work.
Quantifying the amount of music on a platform shows how valuable music is to the users of the platform, the content on the platform, and ultimately the platform itself. It enables music rightsholders to make a case for how much their artists should be compensated, so that they are getting their worth while contributing to the success of social media giants. The more music is on a platform, and the more successful videos with music are on a platform, the more valuable music becomes.
TikTok has more music than YouTube and Meta platforms
We examined content on TikTok from January 2019 – December 2023 and found that more videos contain music on TikTok than any other platform we’ve analyzed, with 85% of videos containing music.
With so much of the platform’s content leveraging music, it’s hard to argue that music’s not important to TikTok’s success, especially since this number has grown. In four years, the amount of videos containing music has increased 15 percent. As TikTok has grown, so has the value of music on the platform.
How TikTok compares to other leading platforms
- YouTube: 84% of videos contain music
- Instagram: 58% of videos contain music
- Facebook: 49% of videos contain music
TikTok is heavy on modified audio like sped up songs
In 2023, we also looked at TikTok to determine the prevalence of modified audio, like sped up versions of songs, and found nearly 31% of matches found on TikTok are speed or pitch modified. The issue with these edited songs is that they are typically not licensed by the creators who upload them, so they drive streams for the modified versions over the originals, further exacerbating payment issues for music rightsholders. You can read our full modified audio report here.
5% of videos on TikTok generate 89% of the views
Like we’ve seen with other platforms, a small percentage of videos on TikTok generate the majority of views and the largest share of views comes from videos with 1M-10M views.
Five percent is actually the highest of all the platforms we’ve analyzed, with YouTube having the most extreme distribution between videos and views:
- YouTube: 0.77% of videos claimed 82.83% of all views
- Instagram: 3% of videos earned 83.7% of all views
- Facebook: 2% of videos generated 86% of all views
Sports channels were top performers in 2023
Charli D’Amelio was the queen of TikTok in 2020, but for the past two years, Barstool Sports has reigned over the app with the highest number of views on its channel. ESPN takes the number two spot followed by House of Highlights, proving music and sports are valuable to TikTok. Hmmm, music and sports…why does that remind us of something?
Summary
With the addition of the TikTok Shop and its own premium streaming service, TikTok is clearly not slowing down anytime soon. As the platform continues to grow and diversify though, it will also continue to face challenges over its use of music and other unmoderated content. Universal Music Group could be the first but not the last music rightsholder to demand more from a platform that so hugely benefits from its catalog. As all the major platforms face scrutiny over music, AI content, and unsafe environments, we’ll have to wait and see what new legislation and changes 2024 may bring. In the meantime, we’ll continue tracking content and these sites and helping rightsholders and platforms alike.
Reach out to our team if you want to learn more about this data report, how to track your music on social media, or how Pex technology can help platforms tackle copyright issues and Trust and Safety.
