TikTok is betting on SoundOn over record labels, and independent artists inherit the cold start

Music on Stage’s TikTok-powered global finals took place on 18 September, pitting live-concert performers against each other to be judged on engagement density including likes, shares, comments, and follows, gifting rates (monetised interactions), and audience retention. One of the winners, breakout star Angelyque Solorio, distributes her music through TikTok-owned distributor SoundOn, which has been promoting TikTok’s Music on Stage initiative through its newsletter and socials.

Overwhelmed with the choice

In doing so, TikTok is emphasising its push into music distribution, an area it’s been expanding into via SoundOn, a service that gets your music onto TikTok and other ByteDance properties, CapCut as well as streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music and Amazon, at no initial cost. Artists keep their masters and receive 100% of the royalties generated from ByteDance properties forever. Outside those properties, artists will get 100% of streaming royalties for the first 12 months, but in month 13, SoundOn will take a cut (10%).

These generous terms have been matched by others, including other music distributors, but TikTok’s push into distribution is being done hand-in-hand with a reduction in its relationships with labels.

In May, it was revealed via a Bloomberg article that TikTok had been scaling back its music team, axing around 15 partnerships and programming roles responsible for liaising with record companies in the US and LatAm. Further cuts were reportedly on the cards for teams in other areas including the UK. At the time, TikTok’s head of music Constantin Wu released a memo saying these moves were to “increase productivity and strengthen focus on top priorities.”

This came just days before TikTok announced a new multi-year partnership with major label Universal Music Group covering e-commerce and marketing tools and the takedown of unauthorised AI-generated music on TikTok.

Flooded by music

But without the benefit of label-backed marketing muscle, SoundOn and other free-to-use distros can be akin to dropping your shiny new EP into a roaring firehose of tracks. Luminate’s 2025 report, published in January 2026, found that 106,000 tracks were being added to streaming services every single day, with 120.5m tracks amassing no more than a paltry ten streams during 2025.

TikTok has been rolling out tools to help artists stand out, including its Songs of LIVE feature, which allows original tracks to be gifted by TikTok’s live-streaming audiences, playing over the audio of a stream if there is an audience present, and boosts for SoundOn artists like Solorio on its For You page. Her debut EP saw more than 350,000 TikTok videos created using its tracks, and saw her Spotify monthly listener count increase ten-fold.

But TikTok is far from the only way SoundOn’s catalogue is surfaced. As well as landing on other DSPs, tracks are also promoted through SoundOn’s owned-and-operated media including its newsletter and socials.

Third-party services include Artist Push, which allows artists to buy views, likes, shares, comments, follows, profile visits, followers, and more. Though other growth services abound. These can be useful for artists without label-backed PR and marketing muscle, but it’s yet another expense to contend with in an already costly release process such as mastering and cover art, alongside all the free-but-tedious DIY promotion (see below).

All to themselves

Successful TikTok-driven music discovery and virality relies on engagement, namely likes, shares, comments, reposts, duets, stitches, follows, saves, profile visits, gifting etc, and retention. This can be generated organically or purchased. Artists can and do commission videos that hook listeners within the first couple of seconds. Or they might post loads of content in the hope something catches on. Or they could DM other artists or creators, ask them to make videos featuring their track, or even pay them to do so. Or they can buy views.

There are lots of companies out there promising drip-fed likes, shares, reposts, follows, plays, comments, profile visits, and more. Many will tell you upfront that they don’t want your TikTok or other socials’ login details, while others won’t explicitly state they don’t, so be wary. Artist Push starts from just $9 for 5,000 plays, 250 likes and 100 followers.

Ultimately, TikTok’s growing emphasis on distribution and its pivot towards working directly with artists over labels could prove fruitful for SoundOn-signed acts who’ve already gained traction and have the resources and connections to promote their music effectively. For everyone else, however, TikTok’s insatiable content firehose means artists without the means to promote their tracks could find themselves shouting into an increasingly crowded void.