Around half of Australian TikTok users have been affected by a month-long "test" that limits and even removes access to music on the social platform.

The changes have had a significant impact on independent artists and creators across the country, many of whom didn't get a warning, and has now drawn the ire of the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).

According to a statement from TikTok Australia, the test is to "analyse how music is accessed and used on the platform."

"While the test is under way, we expect that some of our users will not be able to access our full music and sounds library. For more than half of our community there will be no change to their experience and the test will not impact them."

ARIA has now weighed in on the trial, with CEO Annabelle Herd saying TikTok's methods are untrustworthy and are hurting Australian music.

"It is frustrating to see TikTok deliberately disrupt Australians' user and creator experience in an attempt to downplay the significance of music on its platform," Herd said in a statement today. 

"After exploiting artists' content and relationships with fans to build the platform, TikTok now seeks to rationalise cutting artists' compensation by staging a 'test' of music's role in content discovery."

"This 'test' is presented as an effort to analyse, improve and enhance the platform's wider sound library, but as little as five months ago, TikTok's Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas said that 80 percent of content consumed on TikTok is programmed by algorithms.

"If this is the case, then it's difficult to trust that this is a true test. TikTok can set its Australian algorithm up-front to – within parameters they define – deliver the results they want.

Herd also called out a 2021 speech by TikTok's Global Head of Music, Ole Obermann, where he said: "Music is at the heart of the TikTok experience."

Indeed, TikTok has fundamentally altered the way people – especially young Australians – consume and discover music since the app launched Down Under in 2019.

Several songs in the pointy end of triple j's Hottest 100 of 2022 enjoyed viral success on the app. 

It's also helped launch the careers of local artists and given huge signal boosts to international songs and artists.

TikTok test puts "artists at a disadvantage"

So says Kota Banks, an independent alt-pop artist from Sydney who found herself in "that unlucky half" of users unable to access TikTok's full library of sounds and major label-licensed music.

To her surprise, that included her own music.

"I've noticed all my old songs and videos that I posted, other people can hear them, but I either can't hear them, or if I want to continue posting my own songs I actually can't even access that sound," Banks told triple j's Hack.

The changes limited her ability to promote her latest single, 'Girl's World', to her 1400+ followers, a song she "invested everything into and was so proud of.

"By the time these tests are over, I'm moving on to the next song. There goes my opportunity to promote this song that I spent so much money and time on.

"I planned the whole of last year around this release, and a month is like a year in song cycle time, so it's so stressful."

Banks says that the experiment is counter to how TikTok "begged" independent artists in Australia to promote their own music and build an audience on the platform.

"It's giving, 'y'all want to use us but you don't really give a fuck'," she said in a video posted to Instagram.

"It's already so hard for Australian independent artists and now we're the test. It just feels wack to be a guinea pig."

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She continued: "I would like to beg TikTok on behalf of all Australian independent artists to dead this test that they're running or find a more artist-friendly way to do this analysis, because you're literally putting all of these independent artists at a disadvantage.

"The thing that gets me is that it feels lazy and inconsiderate. Surely there's another way to run these tests."

It's not just music that's being affected, either.

Mary McGillivray makes videos on art history and visual culture, which have a combined 11 million likes. But TikTok's experiment means more than half of her previous videos – utilising background music — have been made "unwatchable" for a large part of her audience that can no longer hear them.

"It's frustrating because some of my videos that have been muted have edits that I've made externally with music that I've paid a license for on a third party platform," McGillivray told triple j's Hack.

"But there's no way for me to say 'here TikTok, I have the license' this isn't a copyright violation."

Why is TikTok running this test?

As the company says, it's to analyse the usage of music on the app, with many believing that viral, song-centered content has driven the TikTok's growth. And nobody is debating its marketing power.

However, as ARIA's statement suggests, parts of the Australian music industry view TikTok's changes as an attempt to understand and measure the value of music on the platform as it continues licensing negotiations with major record label companies. And creators are being caught up in the dispute.

The 'Big Three' major labels — Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music Group – want a larger share of the app's advertising revenue and have been negotiating with TikTok "all year", according to a 2022 Bloomberg report.

The theory is that by 'muting' half of Australian users, essentially creating a music-free TikTok for a huge sample of users, TikTok can properly analyse if app usage goes down or not.

If it doesn't, that strengthens the bargaining power of ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, in their negotiations.

The test has also drawn attention given that, at the same time, TikTok has launched SoundOn, its own integrated music marketing and distribution platform in Australia.

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Launched last year and already live in the UK, US, Brazil and Indonesia, SoundOn lets artists upload their music directly to TikTok and distributes their music to streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Instagram.

The service is free to join and boasts paying 100 percent of royalties to music creators in the first year, and 90 percent after that, as well as providing audience insights, analytics data, and  a range of promotional tools and support.

Several local artists have already signed with SoundOn, including emerging alt-pop favourites CXLOE and ASHWARYA, electronic producer Roy Bing, and Aleksiah, whose debut single 'Fern' had reviewers at triple j Unearthed raving.

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"TikTok audiences have shown their appetite for music discovery, so for us working with emerging artists and music creators to help distribute and promote their music feels like a natural next step," says Ollie Wards, Director of Music for TikTok ANZ.

"Our local SoundOn team of A&R, Artists Services and Music Marketers are looking forward to partnering with artists, managers, labels and the Australian Music industry at large, and we're excited to offer another way for our Aussie artists to get their music heard by global audiences."

What happens next?

It remains to be seen if TikTok will respond to ARIA's calls to restore music access to all Australian users, though it had previously issued a public apology for any "disappointment" caused, saying it looked forward to "restoring the full catalogue at the conclusion of the test period".

However, some creators could dump the social media platform for the competition after feeling they've been disrespected and exploited by this test and the lack of forewarning around it.

"I'm hearing from a lot of TikTok creators that they're very upset with the app," Matilda Boseley, a reporter for The Guardian Australia, told triple j's Hack.

She says there was already frustration over the lack of transparency around restrictions of what content is allowed and what isn't compared to other platforms. Concerned about how their videos might get punished in the algorithm, users have even gotten creative with their language.

"People are often quite worried about what words they include in videos," Boseley says. "It has spawned its own Gen Z dialect: 'unalive' instead of 'being killed'."

Other common examples include 'sex' becoming 'seggs', using 'cornucopia' instead of 'homophobia', and 'leg booty' for LGTBQ.

"We don't know what degree those content restrictions are, but it's been very observed," Boseley said. "For a lot of people, this [music test] is almost the final straw."

"It also comes at a time when other social media platforms are springing up their own shortform video streams. You see this with Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, Facebook is investing more into video as well."

"Some creators are being approached by other companies with deals for exclusivity and to have exclusive content."