The video-sharing platform's new SoundOn service will let people distribute their own music.
For Chloe Adams, rather than touring the country singing at weddings, she can now exploit the video-sharing platform's new music service SoundOn.
Like so many hits, her song Dirty Thoughts quickly attracted the TikTok audience first. It has since become popular on Spotify, with nearly 10 million streams. "I was the lead singer and played my acoustic guitar too, that's where I'd be right now if I had no way to release my original music online."Before SoundOn, artists behind the viral tracks used to have to leave TikTok to find distribution options.
SoundOn pays out 100% royalties to music creators in the first year and 90% after that, so the idea is it empowers new and undiscovered artists and allows their popularity to snowball. There are also no administrative fees.Although artists have been releasing music on platforms like YouTube for years now, some entry-level singers have struggled to make money - with only videos attracting a lot of views able to cash in on adverts.
The technology, which is owned by the Chinese internet giant ByteDance, means the artists can choose the model that is right for them, and choose to remain completely independent, but the bar is high. Nigel Harding, vice-president of artist relations at Deezer, told the BBC, "Launching SoundOn is a completely logical move for TikTok.