Sydney electronic artist Kota Banks has hit out at TikTok for using Australian creators in a test case to see if users will continue to use the app without access to certain music.
Last week it was reported by Bloomberg that the video-sharing platform is running an experiment with “a subset of TikTok’s users in Australia”, meaning content creators won’t “be able to use certain songs”.
In a statement to The Music Networka representative for TikTok clarified that over the next few weeks the company will “run a test in Australia to analyze how music is accessed and used on the platform”.
“Some of our users will not be able to access our full music and audio library,” the representative continued. “For more than half of our community, there will be no change in their experience and the test will not affect them.”
Kota Banks, who releases music through Nina Las Vegas’ NLV Records label, has strongly criticized the experiment, saying that – as one of the creators on the platform affected by the test – she is unable to access even his own music.
“I just put out a song that I’m so proud of. I’m an independent artist so I don’t have that much of a budget. A lot of what I put out is self-funded,” Banks – who released latest single ‘GIRLS WORLD!’ last month through NLV – said in a video she posted online yesterday (February 7).
“TikTok, after begging independent content creators and artists to promote their own music on the platform, literally turned around and said it’s fine if 50 percent of users no longer have access to their own sounds. For over a month, by the way. I’m over my song in a month. I want to move on to the next one.
Banks goes on to argue that the experiment runs counter to the way TikTok has increasingly positioned itself as a tool for artists and creators to share and promote their work with their audience.
“It works, you all want to use us but you don’t care. It’s already so hard for Australian independent artists and now we’re the test. It just feels crazy to be a guinea pig. We all put our heart and soul into these publications Many of my peers contacted me after I wrote about this and said, “Wow, this happened to me, but I didn’t know why.”
“I’d like to ask TikTok on behalf of all Australian independent artists to kill this test that they’re running or find a more artist-friendly way to do this analysis because you’re literally putting all these independent artists at a disadvantage. . It , that gets me is that it feels lazy and inconsiderate. Surely there’s another way to run these tests.”
TikTok’s Australian experiment comes as the company tries to understand the value of licensed music to its user base, using the test as a way to measure how much it would affect their use of the platform if one could not access all the sounds , they want.
Last November, Bloomberg reported that major labels Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group had been “negotiating all year” with TikTok, asking the company to share advertising revenue and increase the royalties it pays for rights.