HFA's Rumblefish Provides Music Rights Administration Services to ByteDance

27 June 2025 - Press release

HFA’s Rumblefish, a trusted provider of comprehensive music industry rights administration services, is pleased to announce that it has been engaged to provide data, licensing, and royalty management services to support ByteDance’s TikTok and CapCut products. TikTok is a social media platform and a leading destination for short-form mobile video. CapCut is a video editing application that enables users to create and edit videos with various effects, filters, and music. 

To support the use of music in ByteDance’s products, HFA’s Rumblefish will utilize its full suite of rights management services, offering publishers the opportunity for direct licensing, linking sound recording-to-composition data, processing usage data, and providing royalty calculation, distribution, copyright research, and publisher support. These services are backed by HFA’s advanced technology, trusted industry relationships, and over 90 years of music rights expertise.

HFA’s Rumblefish continues to solve complex music rights challenges, transforming the impossible into standard practice so that its clients can focus on their core business of engaging with music fans.

“We are thrilled to offer the music publishing community the opportunity to license both TikTok and CapCut,” said Lauren Apolito, EVP of Strategy and Business Development of HFA’s Rumblefish. “With our unparalleled reach to the publishing market and our robust and scalable infrastructure, HFA’s Rumblefish is uniquely positioned to handle the massive scale of ByteDance’s licensing and data processing needs across two of its key product offerings on a global basis.”

“At SESAC Music Group, we’re working to leverage our global tech and data platform to assist innovative hyperscalers like ByteDance to utilize music by obtaining authorization directly from songwriters and music publishers,” said John Josephson, Chairman & CEO of SESAC Music Group. “With our best-in-class licensing, data, and royalty administration capabilities, we help drive new sources of revenue for songwriters and music publishers by enabling platforms like TikTok and CapCut to create meaningful user experiences.”

“ByteDance is committed to making it simple for users to discover, create, and share content powered by music,” said Jordan Lowy, Global Head of Music Publishing Licensing and Partnerships at ByteDance. “We are looking forward to working with HFA’s Rumblefish to help streamline global music rights administration, and to ensure seamless and timely remuneration for rightsholders on the platform.”