TikTok cut its music division by around 15 people in the US and Latin America in October 2025, according to Billboard. Roles were lost in artist relations, programmes and partnerships, that is, in the teams that connected the platform with label representatives. For the music industry, it is another signal that ByteDance is systematically reshaping its relationship with traditional labels. Bloomberg summed up the thesis in a single sentence this week. According to Alexandra S. Levine and Ashley Carman, TikTok “is deprioritizing relationships with music labels”. The platform “is cutting jobs focused on the music industry and emphasizing projects that connect the company more directly to artists rather than their representatives”, the authors wrote.
The sequence over the past twelve months
In November 2024, TikTok shut down its TikTok Music streaming app globally. It ran the app in five countries, namely Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore and Mexico, and the product was never launched in the US. In March 2025, the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart ended, a partnership that lasted around 18 months from its debut in September 2023. In October 2025 came the music division cuts mentioned above, and according to Billboard, further cuts were expected in the United Kingdom.
In parallel, development of its own distribution service, SoundOn, and the sync-licensing marketplace Commercial Music Library continue. Both services compete directly with what labels do, namely placing music on streaming services and promoting tracks on TikTok itself, Ashley Carman summarised in an accompanying LinkedIn post.
SoundOn by the numbers
TikTok launched SoundOn in 2022 as a free distribution platform for independent creators. Its royalty terms are significantly more open than those of traditional distributors: 100% in the first year on third-party DSPs, 90% from the second year, and 100% permanently on ByteDance platforms such as TikTok and CapCut. By September 2025, more than 1.1 million creators had registered on the platform, according to Music Business Worldwide. That same month, SoundOn extended its reach to Germany.
British rapper Tkandz, with the track “NOW OR NEVER” feat. CXSPER, climbed to 30th place on the UK Official Singles Chart under the SoundOn banner. According to MBW, the track has 1.5 million TikTok creations and 3.36 billion views on the platform. That is not yet enough for the big hits of traditional labels, but the direct distribution model is already generating measurable chart impact without a label deal behind it.
The Commercial Music Library and the sync layer
The Commercial Music Library contains one million pre-licensed tracks and serves brands as the only permitted source of music for promotional content on TikTok. Advertising posts by companies must not use the usual trending sounds or creator-generated audio from the platform. In July 2025, TikTok extended the CML with InstantClear sync-licensing technology from Chordal. The contract is multi-year and, according to Digital Media Wire, will open access for brands to millions more tracks from rightsholders across the music industry.
For brands, this is a concrete effect of the restructuring. Sync licensing for social campaigns is shifting from direct deals with labels and publishers into a pre-licensed library controlled by the platform itself.
“I do think there's this cultural element”
Johnny Cloherty, co-founder and CEO of the marketing agency Genni, argued in an interview for Bloomberg that the problem is structural. “Platforms like YouTube and Meta and Spotify, they've realized to play ball in the American market they need to have a consumer-facing team. Even if it's a loss leader or servicing element,” Cloherty said. “With TikTok, I think maybe China is like, 'Why are we doing this?' I do think there's this cultural element.”
ByteDance responded that, according to Bloomberg, the steps aim to raise productivity and sharpen focus on core priorities. Tracy Gardner, who has led music business development at TikTok since February 2025 and previously spent six years in legal affairs and business development at Warner Music Group, reiterated, according to Bloomberg, that the priority of creator services is not changing. Gardner’s predecessor, Ole Obermann, left for Apple Music in March 2025.
Ordinary business with labels continues in parallel with the restructuring. TikTok and Universal Music Group announced a new multi-year global licensing agreement on 22 May 2026, with expanded protections against unauthorised AI music. In a press release, Gardner described the agreement as a move “to the next level”. For labels, TikTok remains a pivotal distribution channel that they must license with.
Competitors keep their own music teams
Competing platforms are investing in artist-facing structures. YouTube runs YouTube for Artists, with its own A&R and marketing structure linked to YouTube Music. Spotify offers brands and creators tools such as Marquee and Discovery Mode, backed by a dedicated consumer-facing team. Meta holds licensing agreements with major labels and runs a separate music creator programme for Reels. From this angle, TikTok is going against the existing pattern of the American market, where a platform with global ambitions typically builds an official deal with the majors in parallel with an internal structure that manages relations with creators and brands.
The European layer
In February 2026 the European Commission provisionally found that TikTok breaches DSA obligations concerning addictive design. If the Commission confirms the breach, sanctions of up to 6% of the global turnover of parent company ByteDance are at stake. The concrete impact on the music division will depend on interpretation and enforcement. The case concerns the platform’s design, not its licensing business.
SoundOn is growing in parallel in Europe. After the United Kingdom, it expanded to Germany in 2024, the fourth-largest market for recorded music according to MBW. For European labels, this means their traditional role as distributor and marketer is facing direct competition from the platform itself in the continent’s largest market.
For brands working with social campaigns, the sync-licensing supply chain is changing. Music for short video formats is moving from the classic licensing chain via labels and publishers into a single pre-licensed library inside the TikTok interface. For hit campaigns, the artist roster of the majors remains key, and the UMG-TikTok deal of 22 May 2026 confirms this. For brand-safe sound in advertising and everyday creator content, however, ByteDance is building a parallel stack outside the label economy.
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