TikTok Music Royalties in Canada vs the US: What Changes
In Canada you register with SOCAN for TikTok composition performance royalties and CMRRA for reproduction royalties, the same as Spotify. The difference is the recording side: SoundExchange covers neither TikTok nor any interactive service in the US, and Re:Sound has no public TikTok tariff in Canada, so your distributor's deal is the only thing paying your master.
Almost everything written about TikTok royalties assumes you're in the US. The PROs are named ASCAP and BMI, the master collection society is SoundExchange, and that's the whole map. If you're a Canadian artist, that map sends you to the wrong addresses.
This page is the Canadian version, built for the cluster's one job: explaining how TikTok pays musicians. I'll walk the composition side (SOCAN, CMRRA) and the recording side (Re:Sound vs SoundExchange) and show you exactly where the Canada and US paths split. Some of it is reassuring. One part is a gap nobody collects, in either country.
Your distributor still does not handle most of this. Distribution collects the TikTok sound-recording money from TikTok's licensing pool. The composition royalties on the same use are separate, and you register for them yourself.
Canadian songwriters use SOCAN; US writers pick one of ASCAP, BMI, SESAC
CMRRA signed its TikTok reproduction-royalty deal, retroactive to May 1, 2019
TikTok master royalties routed through Re:Sound or SoundExchange in either country
societies with SOCAN reciprocal deals, pulling US royalties home
Key takeaways
- TikTok pays composition performance royalties to your PRO. In Canada that's SOCAN; in the US it's ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. You only join one.
- SOCAN's reciprocal deals with 100-plus societies, including ASCAP and BMI, pull your US TikTok composition royalties home, so a Canadian writer registers once at home.
- CMRRA signed a TikTok licensing deal in June 2021, retroactive to May 1, 2019, covering reproduction royalties on your compositions. The US equivalent is The MLC.
- The recording side is where Canada and the US look identical: SoundExchange doesn't cover TikTok, and Re:Sound has no public TikTok tariff, so neither country routes your master royalties through a collective.
- For TikTok sound-recording money, a distributor with a TikTok deal is your only path in both countries. No collective backstops it the way Re:Sound and SoundExchange backstop Spotify-era plays.
Why your country changes how TikTok pays you
TikTok doesn't pay artists directly the way a paycheck works. It cuts bulk licensing deals with distributors, labels, and publishers, drops a fixed pool of money for broad catalog access, then splits that pool by how much each rights holder's music got used. The deeper mechanics of that pool live in the sound royalties guide. What matters here is that the money lands in two different copyrights, and which body collects each one depends on where you are.
Every track is two things: the composition (the song you wrote) and the recording (the master you made). TikTok use generates money on both. The composition side flows through collection societies, and those are country-specific. The recording side flows through your distributor's TikTok deal, and that part barely cares what country you're in. Get those two straight and the rest of this page is just filling in names.
Two copyrights, one TikTok use
When someone uses your sound in their video, that single use can earn a composition performance royalty (your PRO), a composition reproduction royalty (CMRRA or The MLC), and a sound-recording royalty (your distributor). Three streams, three different collectors.
Which PRO collects TikTok composition royalties: SOCAN or ASCAP?
TikTok pays performance royalties on the composition through performing rights organizations. In the US those are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, and a songwriter picks one. In Canada there's no choice to make: SOCAN is the only PRO, and it has a licensing agreement with TikTok covering performance royalties for the musical works in its repertoire. SOCAN collects from TikTok, reads the usage data, and distributes to the writers and publishers it represents.
So a Canadian songwriter registers with SOCAN, full stop. You do not also sign up with ASCAP or BMI to collect your US TikTok plays. SOCAN has reciprocal agreements with more than 100 societies worldwide, including ASCAP and BMI, which means it collects your US performance royalties and passes them through. Register once at home and let the reciprocal deals chase the cross-border money.
| Canada | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Performing rights organization | SOCAN (the only PRO) | ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC (pick one) |
| TikTok performance royalties | SOCAN collects via its TikTok license | ASCAP/BMI/SESAC collect via their TikTok licenses |
| Mechanical / reproduction | CMRRA or SOCAN Reproduction Rights | The MLC |
| Cross-border collection | SOCAN reciprocal with ASCAP/BMI pulls US money home | ASCAP/BMI reciprocal with SOCAN pulls Canadian money home |
| PRO membership | One at a time | One at a time |
If you're weighing the PRO choice itself, the US-vs-Canada comparison of ASCAP and SOCAN goes deeper in the broader royalty-collection guides. For TikTok specifically: Canadian writer, SOCAN.
Reproduction royalties: CMRRA in Canada, The MLC in the US
There's a second composition royalty hiding behind the performance one. When your song is reproduced (a stream, a download, and yes, a sound used in a TikTok video), that triggers a mechanical, or reproduction, royalty. It also pays the songwriter and publisher, but a different body collects it.
In Canada that body is CMRRA, the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency. CMRRA reached a multi-year licensing agreement with TikTok in June 2021, which let its members (self-publishing songwriters and music publishers) collect reproduction royalties when their music shows up in TikTok videos. Those royalties were retroactive to May 1, 2019, and a separate settlement covered the period before that, back when TikTok ran as Musical.ly. As an alternative to CMRRA, SOCAN Reproduction Rights can collect both your performance and reproduction streams under one roof. Choose one path for mechanicals and stick with it, or you'll create conflicts.
In the US, the same reproduction money flows through The MLC under the Music Modernization Act's blanket license. You register with The MLC directly, or let CMRRA's international collections or SOCAN claim on your behalf. A self-publishing Canadian indie artist should register with both SOCAN (performance) and CMRRA (reproduction) to catch the full composition side of TikTok use.
The recording side is where Canada and the US look the same
Here's the part that surprises people, and it's the heart of this page. On Spotify-era plays, your master royalties have a collective backstop: SoundExchange in the US and Re:Sound in Canada, with a bilateral deal between them. For TikTok, that backstop isn't there. In either country.
SoundExchange administers the US Section 114 statutory license for non-interactive digital transmissions: Pandora, SiriusXM, internet radio. TikTok is interactive and user-driven, so it falls completely outside that statutory license. SoundExchange does not cover TikTok. There's no other US neighbouring-rights regime for interactive services either, so US master royalties from TikTok come down to whatever your distributor negotiated.
Canada has Re:Sound, which administers neighbouring rights (equitable remuneration) for performers and master owners under Section 19 of the Copyright Act. Re:Sound covers broadcast and public performance of recordings: webcasters, satellite radio, background music. But its public tariffs don't list TikTok, and I haven't found a primary Re:Sound source confirming a TikTok-specific agreement. So I can't tell you Re:Sound collects your TikTok master royalties, because as far as I can see, it doesn't. If that changes, Re:Sound is the body to watch.
| Canada | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Neighbouring-rights collective | Re:Sound (no public TikTok tariff) | SoundExchange (does not cover TikTok) |
| Statutory license for TikTok? | No interactive-service regime applies | Section 114 excludes interactive platforms |
| Who actually pays your master royalty | Your distributor's TikTok deal | Your distributor's TikTok deal |
| Collective backstop like Spotify-era plays? | No | No |
No distributor TikTok deal means no master royalty
Because no collective routes TikTok master royalties in either country, your distributor's TikTok licensing deal is the entire mechanism. If your distributor has no TikTok agreement, you earn zero on the recording side no matter how viral the sound gets. This is exactly what happened to some rights holders during the Kate Bush TikTok surge.
What a self-releasing Canadian artist registers
If you write, perform, and own your masters, here's the full setup for catching everything TikTok generates. Composition performance: SOCAN. Composition reproduction: CMRRA, or SOCAN Reproduction Rights if you'd rather keep it under one roof. Sound recording: there's nothing to register with a collective, so this comes down to using a distributor that has a TikTok deal and reads your TikTok royalties into its quarterly payouts.
The US side of the composition royalties is covered by SOCAN's reciprocal agreements and CMRRA's international collections, so for most people there's nothing extra to set up across the border. The recording side is distributor-only in both countries, so there's no second registration to do there either.
One gate sits under all of it: ISRCs. Every recording needs an International Standard Recording Code or the matching systems can't find your plays. No ISRC, no match, no money.
If you're still deciding whether TikTok is even worth chasing as a royalty source rather than a promotion engine, the TikTok-vs-Spotify comparison in this cluster lays out the per-play gap, and the pillar guide maps every paid path TikTok offers a musician.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Creator Rewards Program available to Canadian creators?+
I can't confirm it from a primary TikTok source. Geographic availability for TikTok's monetization programs changes, and Canada isn't always included at launch. Check TikTok Support for current availability before you count on it as income.
Do I need a Canadian distributor to collect TikTok royalties in Canada?+
No. What matters is whether your distributor has a TikTok licensing deal, not where it's headquartered. The country that matters for PRO and reproduction-society registration is yours. On the recording side, the distributor's deal is what pays you.
Does uploading my song straight to TikTok as Original Audio earn me anything?+
No. Audio uploaded directly without going through a licensed distributor is treated as a user-uploaded sound. Zero royalties, regardless of how many videos use it. To get paid you have to be in a distributor's licensed catalog, which is also what feeds the usage data your PRO needs to match plays back to you.
How long until TikTok royalties actually show up?+
TikTok sound royalties are disbursed quarterly through your distributor. Expect three to six months between a video being made and the money arriving. SOCAN and CMRRA run on their own distribution cycles, often slower. A quiet first quarter is normal.
If I move off SoundOn to another distributor, do I lose my TikTok earnings?+
What you've already been paid stays yours. Going forward, TikTok royalties on ByteDance surfaces move to your new distributor's standard TikTok rate, which is usually lower. TikTok pays SoundOn-distributed catalog at a preferred rate that other distributors don't get. It's a future-earnings difference only.
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