TikTok Launches SoundOn Distribution and Promo Platform In Australia

TikTok flicks the switch on SoundOn, a distribution and marketing tool that allows Australian music creators to upload their works directly to the short-video platform and other, third-party music platforms.

SoundOn officially launched Sunday (Feb. 5) in Australia with an activation at Laneway Festival in Sydney.

According to reps, SoundOn pays 100% of royalties for those tunes in the first year, and offers “a range of promotional tools.”

Xanu

It’s free to join and is designed to “empower new and undiscovered artists, helping them develop and build their careers,” and, yes, generate royalties from streams.

Clients can also lean on a dedicated, locally-based team of music industry veterans and TikTok music experts for help and advice, and have access to audience insights and data, plus TikTok’s song tab where music is linked to profile pages.

Among the first batch of homegrown artists to jump onboard are Ashwarya, Aleksiah, The Drax Project, Roy Bing, Xanu, Kate Gill, Mikalya Pasterfield and CXLOE, whose new single “Cheating On Myself” drops this Friday (Feb. 10).

Internationally, the likes of Nicky Youre, Katherine Li, Chloe Adams and Armani White have signed up.

Aleksiah

With the rollout last year of SoundOn in the U.K., U.S., Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere, the ByteDance-owned viral app becomes a distributor and a partner to the DIY music scene.

In those markets, SoundOn lets artists upload to other platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Instagram.

“SoundOn can also distribute to other music platforms,” reads the official statement, which doesn’t identify which DSPs and streaming services are cooperating with the Australian project.

“Lots of Australian artists have been discovered and found new fans through TikTok, so we’re excited to help artists get their music to fans through our new service SoundOn,” says Ollie Wards, director of music for TikTok ANZ in a statement on the Australia launch.

“Backed by a team of local music industry experts, SoundOn gives artists a new way to distribute their music to digital platforms and grow their fanbases”.

Drax Project

Australians are spending less time on Facebook and considerably more on TikTok – particularly Gen Z.

According to data published in the Digital 2022 Australia report, TikTok saw a 40% year-on-year jump in time scrolling the app each month, and is now ahead of Twitter among the percentage of internet users who regularly use the platform.

TikTok is “now a social media staple of 32% of the 16-64 set,” the report explains, with Australian users glued to the app for 23.4 hours per month – “a whopping 40% jump since the beginning of 2021.”

Separately, TikTok is “running a test” in Australia over the coming weeks to analyse “how music is accessed and used on the platform.”

Visit us.soundon.global or soundon.global.