95
businesses and organisations using the music
120
posts captured as evidence
25
countries
110
posts made outside the US and UK
Figures as of 1 November 2026
In this case study
This catalogue was made to be licensed: production music written for screen, active for more than a decade. Its official copies are in TikTok's commercial music library, cleared for business use. Even so, 95 businesses and organisations used copies of its tracks that other people had uploaded on TikTok, with no licence. They made 120 posts with them.
Retailers, tradespeople and news media using uncleared copies
The 95 include retailers, beauty businesses, construction firms and tradespeople, and organisations in education and news media. Five of them used the music more than once. Their posts go back to April 2020 and had more than 68 million views when we read them. A business needs a licence to use music in its own posts, so the rights holder is owed money for each one. All 120 are captured as evidence.
110 of the 120 posts were made outside the US and UK
A handful of the catalogue's tracks have become stock sounds on TikTok. Music used that widely travels, and uncleared copies of it turn up in business posts around the world. The posts were made in 25 countries. More were made in Malaysia than anywhere else, 20 of them, then 18 in Tunisia and 17 in Sri Lanka. The US came fifth, with 9.
If it happens to production music, it can happen to any catalogue
Our own audio fingerprinting technology finds uses like these, outside TikTok's commercial licences, and copies cross-posted to other platforms where the music has no commercial licence. Then we collect the money for the rights holder. We found these 120 posts in a complimentary report on a selection of the catalogue's recordings, run on 19 October 2026.
