TikTok distro platform SoundOn now available in Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt

The African countries constitute seven new territories where the service is now available. The others are Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

SoundOn allows artists to upload music directly to TikTok. Its users earn royalties, access promotional tools and distribute music to a wide range of platforms including TikTok Music and CapCut, popular streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and TIDAL, as well as social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

SoundOn pays out 100% royalties to music creators in the first year, with the rate adjusting to 90% thereafter. In February last year, TikTok confirmed Amsterdam-based B2B tech and services company, FUGA as its new distribution partner.

“New artists and musical creators are a vibrant community within TikTok and SoundOn is designed to support them as they take the first steps in their career,” TikTok global head of music Ole Obermann said at the time of launch. “Our SoundOn teams will guide creators on their journey to the big stage and bring the expertise and power of TikTok to life for the artist. We’re incredibly excited about how this will surface and propel new talent and how SoundOn will contribute to an increasingly diverse and growing global music industry.”

Launched in 2016, TikTok is owned by the Chinese internet technology company ByteDance and boasts 1.2 billion monthly active users. TikTok’s 2023 Music Impact Report reveals that users of the short-form video hosting service constitute the ‘most fervent music consumers’ globally, and demonstrate a heightened likelihood of using paid music streaming services compared to the average consumer.

“TikTok is already famous for being the launchpad for creating viral hits and breaking new artists, but we wanted to understand how TikTok and its users impact the music industry more broadly,” Obermann said. “The findings prove what we had long known: that TikTok is the driving force behind music discovery in the industry, and that TikTok users are active, engaged and highly valuable drivers of music industry revenues.”

TikTok’s influence on African music, including genres like Afrobeats and amapiano, has propelled artists such as Ghana’s Black Sherif, Nigeria’s CKay and South Africa’s Tyler ICU to global success through viral hits.