TikTok has been signing big deals in 2020, including Sony Music and Buma/Stemra.
And now it’s secured one of the most important agreements, as part of global head of music Ole Obermann’s mission to get the short-form video platform fully licensed.
Today TikTok and ICE have issued a joint announcement on their pan-European deal.
"ICE and TikTok announce that they have reached agreement on terms to license the TikTok platform in respect of the musical works represented by the ICE Core,” said the statement. “This multi-year deal covers TikTok (and its predecessors) from launch and establishes a flow of royalty payments to songwriters and publishers."
As well as the 333,000-plus rightsholders covered by the partnership between PRS For Music, STIM and GEMA, the ICE Core also includes repertoire of IMRO and the independent publishing giants Concord, Downtown/Songtrust and Peer Music.
PRS For Music CEO Andrea C Martin recently revealed to Music Week that an agreement was on the way.
But it’s been a rocky road to today’s announcement, with both sides initially heading to a Copyright Tribunal in the UK followed by a period of arbitration.
TikTok has also signed up independent publishers in the US, following earlier criticisms of the service’s failure to license repertoire used on the service. It recently partnered with indie labels body AIM to help artists on the platform.
Subscribers can click here to read our recent TikTok cover feature.
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