You want to be the next TikTok star? Trying to expand your reach and get your music on TikTok? Or maybe you watched one of my youtube videos on getting you music uploaded to TikTok.

Whatever your reason is, I'm going to show how to upload music to TikTok. To share some context, my goals as an indie musician, is to get my music uploaded to TikTok so I can increase my reach with the goal of building a bigger fan base.

There are two different ways that we can upload our music to TikTok. Don't worry, I'll be going over them both in detail.

Here's what I recommend: that you cover both of these approaches on getting your music uploaded to TikTok because it will increase your chances of getting more fans and listeners to your music.

The two approaches that I'll be teaching you are:

1. Uploading your music to TikTok as a TikTok sound
2.  Uploading your music to TikTok in the official TikTok Music Library

I'll also be showing you examples of each.

 

 

Uploading Your Music As A TikTok Sound

This is the bread and butter of TikTok. Most of the videos created on TikTok are all centred around "sounds". These sounds can be created and uploaded by anyone on the app. You don't even have to be a musician. Sounds can be anything.

Sounds are not limited to just music either. Sounds can be of nature, babies crying, quotes, funny phrases, relaxing sounds, anything!

Sounds are literally the "sounds" in your TikTok video. Once a video is created on TikTok, it flutters through the TikTok algorithm and people begin to engaged with it. Other people watching TikTok videos can like your video, they can share it, they can comment but even more powerful they can use your sound! This means they can take the audio from your video and make their own video to it!

If you use TikTok, I can almost guarantee that you've hear this Moneys Spinning Monkeys sounds. Click on the image below to watch a video with this sound. Notice that there have ben 27.3 million videos used with this sound. That's almost the entire country of Canada. Crazy! That could be your song!

 

 

Let's take another example...

Let's say you create a video of yourself playing one of your favourite cover songs in your bedroom. All you do is start recording on your phone. You do a small bit of editing to make it look pretty and then you publish it to TikTok. People begin to engage with your video and they really like the sound of your voice and how authentic your song is. People are so engaged they start using your sound. They make videos of their own with your sound in it. For example, videos of their vacations or their daily routine, with your sound in the background.

Whenever someone "uses your sound" there will be a link at the bottom with your name in it for anyone else to use as well.

People can click on this link to see the original creator of the sound. Which is you. Voila, you just got a new fan!

Look at this woman who is playing guitar on TikTok. She recorded a video of her looping the guitar and decided to publish it on TikTok. Notice at the bottom of the video there is a music icon with the sound she created. It shows her name Morgan Kennedy as the creator of the sound.

 

 

If you click on this sound then you'll see the image below. Notice that you can see the "original" badge on the video in the top left corner of the video grid. This is the same video that we looked at above. Morgan is the original creator of this sound and video. Anyone on TikTok can "use this sound". Notice the "use this sound" button in the bottom of the video grid.

When you click on this button your immediately taken to your camera and you can begin shooting a video with the Morgan Kennedy sound. How cool is that!

 

 

You'll also notice that there has been 335,000 videos created with this Morgan Kennedy sound. That's super crazy! That's so many listeners and potential new fans for her music. 

How did Morgan upload this sound to TikTok?

All she did was create a video with the sound in it. No more. No less. That's it. Once you do that, it gives the opportunity for anyone else on TikTok to use this sound.

 

 

How Can You Do This Yourself?

Let's say you want to upload your recorded version of your track to TikTok so people can use it as a sound in their own videos. You can definitely do this and here's what I recommend doing:

Create the video first, whatever that is, maybe you're doing a live rendition or you want to use stock footage, for free from Pexels. Whatever it is, that is the first step, to get your video footage. 

Now the second step is to overlay the recorded version of your song on top of your video. I personally like to use Final Cut Pro to edit my videos but you can also use free mac software like iMovie. Let's look at this 15 second video clip that I edited for TikTok.

 

 

I first uploaded the video footage, which I took on my iPhone, to Final Cut. I then dragged in the recorded version of the song right below the video. I made sure to sync up the video and audio so that it comes off as professional.

 

 

Before exporting the video, it's really important that you're not exporting the video with landscape dimensions. Therefore, with Final Cut, you can modify the dimensions right within the project. You'll be able to do the same thing with all other video editing software. The proper TikTok dimensions are 1080 x 1920.

 

 

 

Here's how the video turned out on TikTok.

 

Will The Sound Be Available In the Music Library?

You're saying to yourself, "wow, that was easy, but wait, is my music in the sound library?"

Just to get us on the same page. The music sound library in TikTok is where you can search for any song and listen to 60 seconds of it. (That's if the artist distributed their music to TikTok).

For example, let's look at Harry Styles song. Notice that you can play the Harry Styles song As It Was for 1 min. It also has the single art and it's not a video. It's a song.

 

 

Now notice when you click into the song As It Was, you begin to see all the thousands of other videos that were created using this song. Note though, there is no "original video". That's because there was never an original video to go with it. It only ever existed as a song. 

 

 

Now that we're on the same page between the difference of a TikTok video sound and the TikTok Music Library, we can now answer the question: if you make a video with a sound will it be in the TikTok music library?

The answer is no.

This is why I suggest you cover both ways when you want to upload your music to TikTok.

You should create a video of yourself singing your song or a video of yourself and the recorded version. On top of this, you should upload your song to TikTok to have it published in their music library so the TikTok users can hear up to 1 min of your song and also use it in their own videos.

Uploading your music to the TikTok sound library is in the next section.

 

Uploading Your Music To The Official TikTok Music Library

In order for us to get our music uploaded to the official TikTok music library, we're going to need to use a music distributor.

Ever heard of companies like TuneCore or DistroKid? You might have if you're an indie musician. It's equally true that you might have not so let's take one step back before going three steps forward and talk quickly about what a music distributor is.

 

 

You can sign up to TuneCore for free and upload your music to TikTok for free. 

What Is A Music Distributor?

A music distributor is a company who will take your song and upload it to TikTok. They'll also give you the option to upload your song to any other streaming service. For example, with a music distributor you can also upload your music to Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, Amazon Music, Instagram, Facebook, the list goes on! Sometimes music distributors can upload your song to over 150+ steaming services around the world. 

In a nutshell, you can think of a music distributor as a middle man between you and TikTok. They are the gatekeepers. They hold the key to getting your music in the official TikTok music library!

 

 

Why Do Streaming Services Use Distributors?

I wish that we could go directly to TikTok and upload our music there as well. The same thing for Spotify or Apple Music too. Just like how you can go to Youtube or SoundCloud, click upload, and then minutes later it's done! Well, unfortunately, it's not that easy because of two reasons:

Quality Control

Music distributors control the quality of what you're releasing. For example, they'll make sure that your song is in the right file format. By the way, it's super important to make sure your song is properly mastered before uploading to TikTok. On top of that, they'll make sure your artwork has the correct dimensions, and also who deserves credit for the songwriting and who owns the copyright.

 

 

Music Royalties

Music distributors will also control and collect all the music royalties you get from streaming. For example, if 1000 people streamed your song on TikTok, another 10,000 on Spotify, and another 5,000 on Apple Music. Your music distributor will collect all of these royalties and pay you.

Are Music Distributors Free?

 

 

Yes and No. Most music distributors will have an annual fee for their service. In return of this annual fee, you keep 100% of your music royalties that you get from streaming. However, there are also some options for free music distributors. If you're going to go free, there usually some service limitations or you may have to share some of your music royalties. You have options when it comes to music distributors.

 

Uploading To TikTok With A Music Distributor

To keep things simple, I'm going to show up an example of uploading your song to TikTok by using TuneCore as a music distributor. I know TuneCore well and I've released a lot of music with them. However, you can use any music distributor you'd like. They will all ask for the same information. For example, here is a good comparison on TuneCore vs DistroKid.

Step 1 

You'll need to sign up to your music distributor of your choice to get stated. In this example, we'll be using TuneCore. I can offer you a 20% discount to TuneCore if you'd like. Again, you can use any music distributor you'd like but TuneCore is one of my favourites.

 

 

 

Step 2

After your sign up to your preferred music distributor, you'll need to locate where the option is to "add a new single" or to "upload a new single". The vocabulary and phrasing should be the same for every distributor. In TuneCore, you would add a new single.

 

 

Step 3

This step is important because you'll add all the important information for your song. By the way, you can do the same process if you'd like to upload an entire album as well. It will just take a bit longer because, well, it's more songs. The important information that you're doing to want to make sure you have is:

Main Artist

This is likely you. Unless you are uploading the song to TikTok for somebody else. This is the name that you'll want to see on TikTok. For example, my artist name is Charles Cleyn. I always double check to make sure the spelling is correct. So should you. This is what your artist title will look like on TikTok. It's light gray in colour and right below the song name:

 

 

Song Title

You'll want to make sure you input your song name with the right spelling too. Make sure you triple check this.

 

Song File Type

Most music distributors will require you to upload your song with a 16bit or 24bit WAV file. This file is large than an MP3 and consequently, better quality. Ideally your song is properly mixed and properly mastered as well. Make sure to get a second opinion on our mix and master before uploading it to TikTok. You wouldn't want to have your song released on TikTok only to find out that it's not loud enough and therefore can't compete with all the other music.

 

Song Artwork

Notice my song artwork in the image above. See how small those images are? Well, don't be fooled by the size. You'll still need to upload an image to your music distributor that is at least 3000 x 3000 pixels. Some music distributors will also not accept anything over 25mb. A great free tool to make single artwork is by Canva. I've used it many times and because of that I've upgraded to their Pro version.

 

Song Release Date and Label Name

This section will depend on what type of plan you've singed up with for your music distributor. For instance, some distributors won't allow you to schedule your release date. Others will. If you look at the TuneCore pricing page, you'll notice that you can start scheduling your release date if you sign up for their Rising Artist plan.

You may also be able to choose the exact release time. This is what it looks like on TuneCore:

 

 

On most distributors you'll be able to choose your own Label Name. For TikTok, this won't matter too much as you don't really see the label name on TikTok anywhere. However, for other types of streaming platforms, like Spotify, you might want to choose a label name because it shows up under song credits. For example, my label is my own name Charles Cleyn. Your own name can be your label too.

Here's what the label name looks like on Spotify:

 

 

ISRC and UPC Codes

These codes are very important but only so if you have already released your music on TikTok. Let's say you tried to release your music on TikTok but then you made a mistake with your song name, artwork, or even the song file itself. You'll have to re-upload the song to TikTok through your music distributor in order to make the changes. Another case is, let's say you're not happy with the service from your music distributor so you decide to switch music distributors. That's fine too. 

In either of these situations, you'll want to make sure to copy the ISRC code and the UPC code from your original release with your original distributor. These codes are valuable because they track the number of streams your song gets. For example, if you got 1,000,000 streams on a song, but then decide to switch music distributors, if you don't copy over the ISRC code correctly you'll lose all streams. Not a mistake you'll want to make!

 

Step 4

In this step, you'll want to do a final review of all your song information that you are preparing to have uploaded on TikTok. Everything is important, however, are are the few things that I would double check on your TikTok release:

• Artist Name

• Song Name

• Song Preview Time

• Scheduled Release Date

I want to re-iterate that you check on all of these areas above because, take note from the image below, this is what specifically shows on on TikTok. I search for my artist name: Charles Cleyn and when to the Sounds tab.

 

 

Inside your music distributor you will have the choice to select the song preview you would like to showcase. Notice in the above image that there are three songs. Each song has an option to play 1 min. This is not the first minute of the song, instead, I selected the part of each song that I would catch the listeners attention. 

You should consider doing the same. Perhaps before the chorus or later in the song where it has more energy. What part of your song will catch the listener to want to hear more?

 

 

Step 5

Sit back and wait until your release day. I recommend choosing a release day that is at least 2-4 weeks in advance to the day that you upload it on your music distributor. This will give, for example, TuneCore enough time to have your song uploaded to TikTok. 

When your release day comes, open up TikTok and have a listen to your song. It's live!

You should consider making a video, or a few videos, with your sound to start engaging your audience. If your sound has a catchy or memorable element to it, get creative with the content. You never know when something can go viral. Focus on being creative and valuable. This is a much better ingredient to go viral instead of trying to make viral content.

Here's some advice on building a music promotion strategy without any budget.

 

Final Thoughts On Uploading Music To TikTok

Some of the biggest hits in the world now are all discovered on TikTok and you could have the next big one. I'm trying too! That's why TuneCore is such a good option for a music distributor because you can get your music on TikTok for free and keep 100% of your royalties. Uploading your music on TikTok is a great way to experiment with your fans. What do they like? What do they not like? 

Once you have your music uploaded to TikTok and you're ready to take the next step, you should consider uploading your music to Spotify and Apple Music. I can offer you a 20% discount for TuneCore which will allow you up upload your music to Spotify, Apple Music, and basically every other streaming service there is. 

Have fun and good luck promoting your new song. Feel free to reach out with any questions in a youtube comment.