Why is my music muted in a TikTok video?

Modified on Fri, 5 Jun at 12:29 PM

TikTok only allows 60 seconds of any sound recording to be included in a video if that sound recording has been distributed to them. If you or one of your artists uploads a video with more than 60 seconds of a track that has been delivered to TikTok, the track will be fully muted in that particular video.

What to do if a video is muted

Revelator cannot reverse or bypass TikTok's muting — this limitation is imposed directly by TikTok. There are two options available:

Remove and re-upload: Delete the original video and re-upload one that contains no more than 60 seconds of the track.
Appeal directly to TikTok: If it is your original sound that was muted, TikTok may allow you to submit an appeal. In the TikTok app, go to the muted video, tap View details, then tap Appeal and follow the instructions. Note that all videos using that sound will remain muted while the appeal is under review, and approval is not guaranteed.

Tip — customise which 60 seconds plays If you want a different section to play (e.g. the chorus instead of the intro), you can set a custom Preview/Clip Start Time directly in Revelator Pro when creating or editing a track. Enter the start time in mm:ss format — if no value is entered, the clip will start at the 15th second.

Promoting a track on TikTok

If your artist has been safelisted and is still having trouble promoting their song, note the following:

Important The in-app Promote button cannot be used with copyrighted audio — even if the artist is safelisted. Safelisting prevents content from being blocked by TikTok's content identification system, but it does not grant commercial music rights for paid promotion.

To promote a video that contains copyrighted audio, artists must use TikTok Ads Manager (Spark Ads) instead of the in-app Promote button:

Go to TikTok for Business and set up a Spark Ads campaign.
Note that TikTok Ads Manager also requires music to be cleared for commercial use. Music from TikTok's Commercial Music Library is pre-cleared; other tracks may require separate licensing.