Photo Credit: TikTok
TikTok is looking to beef up its legal team with experts in music licensing.
TikTok is looking to hire a junior transactional attorney who specializes in music licensing for digital platforms. The company wants to beef up its music licensing libraries available to its users through license agreements.
“You will draft and negotiate a variety of music rights license agreements, including blanket/catalog agreements with record labels, aggregators, music publishers and collecting societies in the US and Latin America,” the job description on LinkedIn reads.
“You will work cross-functionally with sales, branding, music content, user growth and other teams to clear rights for music-related marketing, promotion and music performance streaming event initiatives on TikTok, including synchronization rights for sound recordings and musical compositions,” another point reads.
TikTok is seeking a lawyer to provide expertise and strategic advice on the company’s music operations, product and other teams related to the myriad of uses of music on TikTok. That includes music licensing for user-generated content, and ‘safe harbor’ implications under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Job qualifications for the position include a working knowledge of the digital music rights landscape in the US and Latin America. That includes ‘safe harbor’ liability exemptions for UGC platforms. At least three years experience negotiating music license agreements for digital service providers, media, or technology companies.
Other qualifications include fluent in English and, ideally, Spanish or Portuguese. Potential applicants need to be willing to meet during hours outside their home timezone and must have a California or New York state bar membership (that’s where TikTok’s offices are).
It’s an interesting look at how TikTok plans to beef up its music licensing team for future fights.
TikTok’s presence in the music industry keeps growing, despite the ban threat last year. It has shaped new trends in the industry more than any other social media network available. So many trends have arisen from TikTok that there is a ‘TikTok effect’ associated with the virality of the platform.
TikTok wants a legal team that can provide the guidance it needs for the complicated network of music licensing agreements. If you’re interested in applying for the job, you can do so on TikTok’s website with the job listing. There’s also a broader list of requirements that weren’t covered here.
TikTok has global offices in Los Angeles, Mountain View, Toronto, New York, Sao Paolo, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.