How TikTok handles copyrighted music
TikTok licenses music for use inside TikTok. When you pick a sound from the app, you're using music under those licences. Problems start when the music comes from somewhere else: a song playing in the room while you film, a track you added in a desktop editor, or a video you made for another platform and uploaded as-is.
When TikTok finds music it can't let you use, it mutes the audio or removes the video. There's no claim that diverts revenue, the way YouTube's Content ID works. TikTok's help center says that when a sound is removed for breaking intellectual property rules, every video that uses that sound is muted, and you're notified. Depending on the reason, you may be able to appeal from the notice on the muted video, or tap Change sound to replace the track on that video.
The licences behind TikTok's sounds can also change. The Commercial Music Library terms say that if TikTok stops having the right to offer a sound, it may take down videos that use it or mute their audio. So a video can be fine on the day you post it and silent later. That's not something any checker can predict.
Personal accounts and business accounts
TikTok has two music libraries, and which one you should use depends on what the video is for.
- The general music library is for personal, non-commercial use.
- The Commercial Music Library (CML) is pre-cleared for commercial use on TikTok. TikTok's ads help describes it as a library of 1 million songs, free for businesses to use in organic posts, video ads and branded content.
TikTok says businesses cannot use the general music library for commercial use. Its CML terms go further: Commercial Sounds are the only sounds TikTok makes available for commercial use. Commercial use includes advertising or promoting a product or service, and tying a sound to a brand, logo or trademark.
In practice: if your account represents a brand, sells something, or you're paid to post the video, stick to Commercial Sounds, or music you hold your own licence for. A personal account posting a dance video can use the general library inside TikTok.
What our TikTok copyright checker tells you
Our checker identifies the recording in your file. You get the title, artist, label or rights holder, release year, ISRC and links to listen. Each match gets a risk level:
- High risk. A commercially released recording. If you picked it from TikTok's own library on a personal account, that's what the library is for. If you added it outside TikTok, or your account is a business, expect it to be muted or limited.
- Check license. Production-library music, usually licensable from the library that sells it. Business accounts can use it when their licence covers social media and commercial use.
- No match. Nothing in a catalogue of more than 150 million tracks matched. That doesn't prove the music is free to use. Covers and unreleased tracks may be missing. How to tell if a song is copyrighted explains what else to look at.
The checker can't see your TikTok account or its libraries. It tells you which song you have, and you then decide whether it's one you're allowed to use where you're posting.
TikTok also has a sound copyright check you can switch on in Creator tools. It runs on the posting screen after the video uploads, and TikTok's Shop Academy guide says a pass only means no infringing music was found in that video. The two checks work well together: ours before you edit, TikTok's just before you post.
Cross-posting TikToks to YouTube and Instagram
This is where most music problems start. A video made with a sound from TikTok's library carries that music when you save it and upload it elsewhere, but the licence doesn't come with it. The CML terms say commercial uses outside TikTok are not permitted and no rights are granted for them. TikTok's terms of service state that no rights are licensed to you in the sound recordings and musical works in the content you access.
So a TikTok reposted to YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels is judged by that platform's rules. On YouTube, a commercial song can get a Content ID claim. Meta's music guidelines say unauthorized music can get content on Instagram and Facebook blocked, muted or removed.
Before you cross-post:
- Export the version without the TikTok sound if your editor kept one, and add music again inside the new platform's app.
- Run the file through the checker to see what's in it, including songs playing in the background that you may not have noticed.
- Read the platform page for where it's going. The YouTube copyright checker covers Content ID and Shorts. The copyright detector covers Instagram Reels and Facebook.
A routine that keeps your sound on
- Add music inside TikTok when you can, from the library that matches your account type.
- If you edit outside TikTok, check the finished file before you post. Background music counts.
- Keep receipts and licence pages for any music you bought.
- If a video gets muted, check the notice first: it says whether you can appeal or should change the sound.