You released a song, creators are using it on TikTok, and now you’re wondering: since it’s my song, can I download those videos and post them on my own page? Do the creators have to tag me? Can I ask them to collab?
These are some of the most common questions we get from artists before a campaign starts. The short answer: you own your song, but the creator owns their video. Here’s what that means in practice.
Two different things live in every video
Every TikTok that uses your song has two separate pieces of ownership in it:
- The song. That’s yours (or your label’s). Nothing about a creator using it changes that.
- The video. The footage, the creator’s face, their performance, their editing, their idea. The creator made it, so the creator owns it.
Using your song in a video doesn’t make the video yours, the same way a café playing your song on the radio doesn’t make the café yours. And the creator owning the video doesn’t make your song theirs either. Each side owns its own part.
Why anyone can use your song in the first place
When you release music through a distributor (DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and others), the distributor licenses it to platforms like TikTok and Instagram. That’s what puts your song in the sound library and lets anyone on the platform use it in their videos.
You still own the song. You can collect royalties, take it down, or enforce your rights outside the platform. But inside the platform, you’ve already agreed that people can use it the normal way, and that license doesn’t come with conditions like “only if you tag me.”
Can I download a creator’s video and post it on my page?
No, not without the creator’s permission. Downloading someone’s video (or screen-recording it) and uploading it to your own account is reposting their work as your own. It takes their face, their performance and their effort without consent, and it goes against TikTok’s and Instagram’s own rules on reusing other people’s content.
What you can do:
- Share the link to the creator’s original post. That’s always fine.
- Use the platform’s built-in Repost or Share button. That shares the original post with the creator’s name still on it, without re-uploading it.
- Duet or Stitch the video, if the creator has those turned on.
- Ask the creator directly for permission, and respect their answer.
Do creators have to tag the artist?
No. Look up any popular song’s sound page on TikTok and you’ll find thousands of videos, and almost none of them tag the artist. That’s normal. Tagging is up to the creator.
The good news: you don’t need the tag to get credit. When a creator uses your official sound, TikTok links that video to your song’s sound page automatically. Anyone who taps the sound sees your song, your name and every other video made with it. That’s where the discovery happens.
What about collabs?
A collab post (Instagram’s Collab feature, for example) puts the same post on both accounts. Both people have to agree to it, and many creators prefer to keep their page their own. It’s a personal choice, not something that comes with using a song.
How we handle this at Castella Media
Our influencer campaigns are built around real creators posting on their own pages, in their own style. Here’s how that plays out:
- The videos belong to the creators and stay on their pages. Creators don’t send video files, and campaign videos can’t be downloaded and re-uploaded to other accounts.
- You get a link to every video on your campaign dashboard, so you can watch them, follow the numbers and share the links with your fans.
- We can ask creators to tag you, but tags aren’t guaranteed, and we don’t do collab posts.
- Creators use your song naturally. That casual, authentic approach is what their followers respond to, and it’s why our cost per video is much lower than the industry average.
You can read the full details in our FAQ and Terms of Service.
The bottom line
Your song is yours. The videos are the creators’. The best thing you can do with influencer videos is let them live where they were posted, share the links, and let the sound page do its job: pulling new listeners back to your music.
Want real creators using your song? Start with a free trial or see how our TikTok influencer campaigns work.
This article is general information, not legal advice. If you have a specific rights question, talk to a music attorney.