TikTok signs global licensing deal with indie label agency Merlin

ByteDance-owned video sharing app TikTok has inked a multi-territory licensing deal with Merlin, the global digital rights agency for the world’s independent label sector.

Merlin’s membership includes over 15% of the global recorded music market.

Today’s news comes as TikTok is also understood to be in the middle of licensing negotiations with the majors.

The deal is effective immediately and follows the appointment of former Facebook exec Jeremy Sirota as Merlin’s new CEO.

The deal also follows TikTok parent ByteDance’s appointment of Tracy Gardner as Head of Label Licensing last month.

TikTok, which has surpassed 1.5 billion downloads worldwide on the App Store and Google Play, was the world’s second-most downloaded app in 2019, and now generates $40m per month according to intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

“Merlin members are increasingly using TikTok for their marketing campaigns, and today’s partnership ensures that they and their artists can also build new and incremental revenue streams.”

Instagram is Losing Steam to TikTok

TikTok and Instagram has been going on for some time now but it getting to a level of competition we have not seen between the two platforms yet. For longer than Gary has even been talking about TikTok, the platform has been quickly catching ground on Instagram and it looks like Instagram is ready to acknowledge it. In this DailyVee, Gary talks about some of the signs he has been seeing from Instagram and the actions they are taking to start combating TikTok which has shown no signs of its growth slowing down. He also does a keynote where he touches on some of the reasons why so many of you have still not adopted the rising platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn,

CD Baby is distributing music to TikTok.

We’re now helping independent musicians get their music on TikTok, the popular video platform.

Here’s how to get your music onto TikTok as a CD Baby client:

• For new releases: Opt in for music distribution to streaming platforms.
• For older titles: If we’ve already distributed your music to streaming platforms, we will deliver that music to TikTok automatically. Please be patient though, as it will take some time for TikTok to ingest our entire catalog.