TikTok is adding new features to its app to let songwriters highlight their works. These features, rolling out in beta, include a “Songwriter” label and a new tab where they can show off their music.
The company said a limited number of publishing partners and songwriters have access to the new label and the music highlight section. Those who want to be part of the program will have to join a waitlist.
TikTok said that it surveyed over 870 songwriters and interviewed several to understand their needs in relation to profile building and creating monetization opportunities. The company also pointed to an independent survey, which indicated that more than half of songwriters who use social media to promote their profile use TikTok to do it. The Bytedance-owned app said that the outcome of these surveys drove the decision to build these features.
“TikTok is unique in its ability to offer songwriters a way to highlight their musical works alongside their own content, helping them to tell stories about their music, their craft, and their lives, and to raise their profile and build their audience on TikTok, as hundreds of thousands of artist creators already do,” TikTok’s Global Head of Music Publishing Licensing and Partnership said in a statement.
TikTok joins streaming services like Spotify, which has let songwriters highlight their work for years now. Last year, Tidal went launched a tool to let musicians track royalties and manage their work for which they have songwriting credits.
While TikTok decided to shut down its music streaming service, TikTok Music, last year, the platform still remains important for users to discover new music and for artists to promote their tracks. Earlier this year, the company released a TikTok for Artists tool that lets artists monitor the performance of their campaign and tracks.
