When will TikTok start paying the music industry 'properly'?

<p>Welcome to the latest episode of Music Business Worldwide&apos;s Talking Trends, supported by <a href='https://www.volymusic.com/'>Voly Music</a>.<br/><br/>In this episode, MBW founder Tim Ingham discusses the model under which TikTok currently pays the music industry.<br/><br/>Music Business Worldwide sources suggest that TikTok&apos;s deals with rightsholders are currently &apos;buy-outs&apos; – i.e. the platform pays a lump sum upfront, rather than paying a revenue share based on each artist/label&apos;s popularity on its platform.<br/><br/>With TikTok&apos;s revenues expected to triple to $12 billion in 2022, concerns are growing amongst music companies that TikTok could soon get &quot;too big and too powerful&quot; to force into an agreement that sees it &quot;pay music rightsholders properly&quot;.<br/><br/>Says Ingham: &quot;The music industry is growing increasingly worried that it&apos;s about to star in a movie we&apos;ve seen play out time and time again when it comes to music&apos;s relationship with tech and media giants. <br/><br/>&quot;In short, that movie is about a tech or media giant – you&apos;ve guessed it! – &apos;building its business off the back of artists&apos; without paying those artists what they deserve. <br/><br/>&quot;As my major record company source put it to me the other week: &apos;Soon TikTok is going to be too big and too powerful for us to force it into a revenue share deal. The last time we let a company of this size and power run away with things without paying us properly... was MTV.&quot;<br/><br/>Ole Obermann, TikTok&apos;s Global Head of Music, has told Music Business Worldwide in response to this podcast: &quot;&quot;From the outset we wanted to pay rightsholders and we built a team to do that. We&apos;re proud of the deals we&apos;ve struck and how in a few short years we&apos;ve been able to offer a new and growing revenue stream to the industry, as well as becoming a powerful marketing and promotional platform for artists of all genres. <br/><br/>&quot;We&apos;re