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TikTok bans all political and advocacy advertising

TikTok, Tik Tok, Douyin, Royalties, Royalty Rates

The fastest-growing social media platform on the planet is taking steps to ensure its community can escape the worries of the world for a few minutes.

TikTok has become the first major social media platform to ban all political and advocacy advertising. The news comes not long after the app came under fire for adhering to Chinese foreign policy by censoring certain topics. Pro-LGBT and the Hong Kong protests are just two topics the app has been working to censor. The upcoming US presidential election is likely another.

Blake Chandlee ⁠— TikTok’s VP of Global Business Solutions ⁠— says advertising needs to fit with the platform. 

“Any paid ads that come into the community need to fit the standards for our platform, and the nature of paid political ads is not something we believe fits the TikTok platform experience.

To that end, we will not allow paid ads that promote or oppose a candidate, current leader, political party or group or issue at the federal, state or local level — including election-related ads, advocacy ads or issue ads.”

TikTok is unique in the world of social media. While the vast majority of companies in the social space hail from America, TikTok started in China. The app was called Douyin at launch, which means ‘vibrating sound,’ but was changed to TikTok in 2018 when the it was made available in other countries. 

In addition to having a different name outside of China, TikTok also existed on different servers than Douyin, which was necessary to comply with strict Chinese censorship laws.

As TikTok became a global phenomenon, advertisers took notice. The app offers in-feed video ads, launch screen ads, and sponsored hashtag challenges. The TikTok Creator Marketplace recently launched to connect brands with TikTok creators for their marketing campaigns.

However, as political tensions around the world rise, TikTok is making the smart decision to remove itself from all conversations. The platform understands its young username is susceptible to the messaging its advertisers share. By rejecting all political and advocacy advertising the company is maintaining a space for fun and self-expression that cannot be accused of leaning one way or another on hot button topics.

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With “STUPID,” Ashnikko becomes Tik Tok’s next superstar

Fast-rising rapper Ashnikko has received very little media attention, but she’s already a superstar in the world of Tik Tok.

Tik Tok is the most influential music discovery platform on the planet. Forget Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, as well as any YouTube personality whose opinion seems to matter more than yours. Tik Tok is where the masses decide who matters, and those needing proof should look to the charts. From Lil Nas X scoring the longest-running number-one single in Billboard history to Blanco Brown going platinum with a dance song, Tik Tok is promoting game-changing talent everyone else is ignoring.

This month, rapper Ashnikko is quickly becoming the name everyone in the music business has on the tip of their tongue. Two portions of her song “STUPID” has captured the attention of the Tik Tok crowd, and as a result, her profile is on the rise.

Not on Tik Tok? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered:

The popularity of “STUPID” has spawned nearly half a million Tik Toks to date. Most of those were created after September 21, which is the first date the lyrics site Genius reported a surge in searches for the track. The site’s page for the song has since received more than 80,000 pageviews.

“STUPID” is also finding a real-world audience. As of today, October 4, the song is sitting atop both the Spotify US and Spotify Global Viral songs chart. Tweets from Ashnikko suggest the song is topping the charts in other countries as well, which has helped push the song to more than 2.4 million plays on the platform.

Google Trends offers further evidence of Ashnikko’s rising profile. A quick look at the last month shows a 100x increase in search queries related to Ashnikko and “STUPID.”

Beyond these stats, “STUPID” has accrued millions of plays on YouTube and other music streaming platforms, all of which put money in Ashnikko’s pocket.

Ashnikko has managed to ascend through the fiercely combative streaming marketplace with no attention from major outlets and minimal performances. She also has a growing and deeply engaged audience on social media that is working daily to see her succeed. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Lil Nas X, Blanco Brown, and Stunna Girl were in the same position when their profiles took off on Tik Tok.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, but Ashnikko is positioned for success, and you can bet the industry is starting to notice. To see her get a deal would be no surprise at this point, nor would features on songs from more widely-recognized talent. As far as the internet is concerned, Ashnikko has already made it, and now it’s on her to keep that momentum going.

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Major labels demand ‘guaranteed money’ from TikTok owners

With current contracts set to expire this Spring, three of the biggest labels in the world are trying to secure additional revenue from the fast-growing social media platform.

The big three record labels — Universal, Warner, and Sony Music — are demanding more money for songs played on TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, setting up a showdown with the hugely popular video apps, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

All three labels have contracts with the app owners, ByteDance, that are set to expire this Spring. Negotiations for new agreements have reportedly been ongoing for months, but little progress has been made. 

If a deal is not reached in the near future, the labels may choose to pull their catalogs from the service, which would likely force TikTok and Douyin to remove existing videos and prevent new uploads containing music owned by the companies. That action would ultimately lead to a diminished popularity for the app, which could eventually kill the platform altogether. 

Since negotiations are private, it’s unclear what money is currently being exchanged between ByteDance and the labels with music on its platforms. The fight for higher payouts allegedly stem from the rising popularity of the apps, which has “emboldened” the labels to seek better royalty payouts. Figures are, again, not public, but sources claim the big three labels are seeking a big enough change to earn them hundreds of millions in “guaranteed money.”

Reports of the platforms’ popularity are accurate. TikTok alone has over one billion downloads across iPhones and Google devices worldwide.

TikTok’s argument against the proposed changes is that the company is not a streaming service and therefore it should not be expected to meet the standard royalty rates paid by Spotify and similar platforms.

Todd Schefflin, Head of Global Music Business Development at ByteDance, responds to the reports of negotiations with:

“TikTok is for short video creation and viewing, and is simply not a product for pure music consumption that requires a label’s entire collection.”

Speaking to the platform’s ability to help artists, Shefflin added:

“A short video on TikTok can become a valuable promotional tool for artists to grow their fan bases and build awareness for new work.”

Shefflin brings up a good point. The irony in this story lies in TikTok’s ability to raise the profile of up and coming artists on a global scale. Lil Nas X currently has the number one song in America with the Billy Ray Cyrus assisted remix to his viral hit, “Old Town Road.” The song, which was initially released in late 2018, rose in popularity thanks in large part to a series of videos created by users of TikTok. Here are a few examples:

Major labels may see themselves as needing more money from TikTok, but they may need the platform’s ability to raise artist profiles even more. Removing music catalogs from an app with over one billion users would hurt music marketing at every level, but it would especially hurt developing artists.

That said, the industry’s growing reliance on streaming revenue cannot be denied. The music industry grew 9.7 percent in 2018, thanks mainly to the rise of paid streaming services Spotify and Apple Music. That’s impressive, but compared to where the music business was in 1999, there’s still a long way to go before the industry as a whole can reach its former heights of success.

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