A recent investigation by Billboard explored the concept of “sound campaigns” on TikTok. TikTok sound campaigns are when promotors or record labels pay to have a song featured in a creator’s video.
An insider claimed to Billboard that “75% of popular songs on TikTok started with a creator marketing campaign.”
So, that earworm you came across on TikTok may well be part of a “sound campaign.” According to another Billboard source, these videos don’t have to be disclosed as ads due to a technicality.
Do creators have to disclose TikTok sound campaigns as ads?
Creators can get away with putting a song in the background of the kind of video they’d usually post without an ad disclosure, even if they are being paid for it.
This is because promoters or labels don’t specify the kind of content they want creators to do. Consequently, creators can swerve the wrath of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an independent agency, is the organization that performs checks and balances on advertising. The FTC requires creators to always disclose ads on social media. Over the years, as the creator economy has blown up, so have all the rules and regulations surrounding disclosure.
As pointed out by Tubefilter, these rules extend beyond creators having to disclose when they get cash payments for promoting products. It also applies to any type of “financial relationship” with brands that could influence a creator’s review, like gifts or other freebies.
However, when it comes to TikTok sound campaigns, the FTC is taking a more lenient approach.
“When there are songs playing in the backgrounds of videos, there are no objective claims made about the songs,” an FTC representative said in a statement to Billboard. “The video creator may be communicating implicitly that they like the song. But viewers can judge the song themselves when they listen to it playing in the video.”
“For these reasons, it may not be necessary for a video to disclose that the content creator was compensated for using a particular song in the background in the video.”
