Key takeaways
- Discover how to claim and monetize your music on TikTok using Sound IDs.
- Learn about TikTok’s music rights management
- Learn how Pex Discovery helps rightsholders find and claim their content efficiently
The creation of YouTube’s Content ID allowed many music rightsholders to find and manually claim uses of their catalog on the platform. These claims enabled additional revenue for rightsholders while ensuring content creators could still upload popular music, and YouTube could flourish as a platform. For several years now, TikTok’s growth has outpaced every other platform, and its use of music has grown with it. Following in the footsteps of the social media giants before it, TikTok licensed large catalogs of music and now allows rightsholders to claim uses of their music. TikTok manages music on the platform using Sound IDs, which are identifiers attached to any sound on a video, including music. When it comes to making money from music on social media, TikTok is the new YouTube. Here’s what music rightsholders need to know about claiming Sound IDs on TikTok.
What is a Sound ID?
A Sound ID on TikTok is a unique identifier assigned to specific sounds, including songs, snippets, or audio clips. When you claim a Sound ID, you ensure that the sound you created or own is properly credited and tracked on the platform. This is especially useful for artists, rightsholders, and content creators who want to monitor how their audio is being used and potentially monetize their work.
Why claim your Sound IDs?
- Monetization opportunities:
For rightsholders, claiming your Sound ID can open doors to monetization options through TikTok’s Media Match tool or other revenue streams. Payment is based on the number of creations using the sound, but they are not paid retroactively, so there is incentive to claim sounds as quickly as possible. - Credit and recognition:
Claiming your Sound ID ensures that you receive proper credit when your sound is used in other TikTok videos. - Analytics and insights:
It provides you with valuable insights into how often your sound is being used, who’s using it, and where it’s trending.
Sound ID challenges
When platforms start identifying music for licensing or compliance, creators start finding ways to use music without it being noticed. They often manipulate songs by speeding them up, add very quiet background music, or add voice overs and other sounds to make identifying music difficult. This allows creators to use popular music and trends without being muted for copyright. TikTok is no exception, and creators make it difficult for rightsholders to find and claim their music, especially by uploading copyrighted music as an “original sound” attributed to the creator. If using just a text search and looking for song titles, artists, or lyrics, rightsholders won’t be able to find these “original sounds” using their music. That’s where Pex comes in.
Find and claim more Sound IDs with Pex
At Pex, we help rightsholders find uses of their content online, and we help them monetize it. With Pex Discovery, rightsholders can find their music on TikTok and get all the information needed – including Sound IDs – to verify attribution or make a claim.
Pex Discovery is the only tool available that makes TikTok claims easier by aggregating all videos using a rightsholder’s music and the Sound IDs in one place, so missed match reports can be easily submitted and revenue claimed. Pex uses content identification technology that analyzes audio and video files, and doesn’t rely on metadata.
For 141k songs, we found 2.8M unique Sound IDs
We ran the numbers on a sample of songs from large and independent rightsholders to see how many Sound IDs are on TikTok for these assets. From about 141k songs, we found nearly 3 million unique Sound IDs, that’s 20x as many Sound IDs as songs. We also identified over 830 million videos containing these songs, and can show rightsholders how many videos (called creations on TikTok) are attached to each individual Sound ID. TikTok pays rightsholders based on the number of creations attached to a song, so using Pex, you can easily see high-value Sound IDs for claiming.
With Discovery, rightsholders can easily add the songs they want to identify on TikTok, let Pex technology go to work, and then export all matches and Sound IDs. Reach out to our team to learn how you can sign up for Discovery. We can also run a custom Sound ID report for your team.
If you’re ready to claim a Sound ID on your own, below is an overview of the process.
How to claim your Sound IDs on TikTok
Log into TikTok Media Match and report a “missed match.” To do this you will need:
- The Sound ID you want to claim – Find additional Sound IDs with Pex Discovery
- The Sound ID Match timestamp (This is the timestamp of the sound, not necessarily the video. For example, a sound may be used at the beginning of a video only, but your asset may be included at the end of the sound.) – Available in Pex Discovery
- The Asset ID
- The Asset ID Match timestamp (This is the timestamp for the portion of your asset which is used in the sound. For example, if only 15 seconds of a song’s chorus is used, the timestamp provided may be 0:45-1:00) – Available in Pex Discovery
Start tracking your music and Sound IDs today
Reach out to our team for a demo of Pex Discovery, or to get started with a custom Sound ID report.
