Are TikTok Song IDs accurate? Pex found 20 for every song

Are TikTok Song IDs accurate? Pex examined 141,000 songs on TikTok and found 2.8 million unique Song IDs for them with over 830 million videos containing these songs.

Song IDs are how TikTok identifies tracks and pays creators when their music is used in user-generated content on the platform.

With Sound ID, TikTok assigns a unique identifier to specific sounds, including songs, snippets, or audio clips. When the artist or rightsholder claim a Sound ID, they ensure that the sound is properly credited and tracked on the platform.

Are TikTok Song IDs accurate?

Pex found an average of 20x as many Sound IDs as songs which means that a massive amount of music on TikTok is unidentified, unclaimed and unmonetized. Pex Discovery was created as a tool to help rightsholders find and claim content.

The current battle between TikTok and Merlin and its 30,000 indie distributors and labels including DistroKid, CD Baby, Secretly and Beggars means that millions of tracks could be taken down – if TikTok can identify them. The result for artists is a major loss of income and promotion.

How to claim Sound IDs on TikTok

From Pex: Log into TikTok Media Match and report a “missed match.” To do this you will need:

• The Sound ID you want to claim (Find additional Sound IDs with Pex Discovery)
• The Sound ID Match timestamp (This is the timestamp of the sound, not necessarily the video. For example, a sound may be used at the beginning of a video only, but your asset may be included at the end of the sound.) (Available in Pex Discovery)
• The Asset ID
• The Asset ID Match timestamp (This is the timestamp for the portion of your asset which is used in the sound. For example, if only 15 seconds of a song’s chorus is used, the timestamp provided may be 0:45-1:00) (Available in Pex Discovery)

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.