For supplement and wellness brands
Your gym creators pick the songs. The claim names your brand.
Workout clips, "what I eat in a day" videos and affiliate reviews run on trending music. We check your posts, creator videos and ads, and tell you exactly what to fix. Know every post is safe before your boss or a record label asks.
✓ No logins, just your handles✓ Results in 5 business days✓ Every flag confirmed by a person
The fitness creator problem
Supplement and wellness brands have a marketing engine that looks a lot like the energy drink business: gym creators, fitness influencers, nutrition coaches and a long tail of affiliates, all posting videos that show your product and play whatever song gets people moving. Pre-workouts get hype tracks. Protein gets "what I eat in a day" videos. Collagen and greens get calm morning routines with a soft pop song underneath.
The music in those videos is usually the most popular music on the platform, and that is the music that isn't licensed for marketing. The general TikTok and Instagram libraries are licensed for personal use. Once a video promotes your product, especially once you pay for it or boost it, the use is commercial and the brand generally needs a commercial license.
The case people in this category should know is Sony Music's lawsuit against Bang Energy. Bang ran a huge fitness influencer program. Sony alleged that brand and influencer videos used its recordings, and in 2022 the court sided with Sony on key liability questions, including holding Bang responsible for videos posted by its paid influencers. That ruling is why the creator-did-it defence is so weak.
Gymshark showed the scale
In 2021 Sony Music also sued Gymshark, the fitness apparel brand, over hundreds of recordings in social videos, including influencer content. The case was later resolved. Different category, same model: a brand built on fitness creators, and a label that went through its feeds video by video.
If your brand sponsors athletes, gives away product to gym creators or runs a large affiliate program, your exposure probably sits in the same places:
- Paid creator videos with chart songs, especially in workout and transformation content
- Affiliate reviews on TikTok Shop that you've never watched
- Creator videos turned into Spark Ads or partnership ads
- Gym footage where a recognizable song is playing in the background
- Old ambassador content still running after the agreement ended
What a check looks like
Picture a greens powder brand with 40 ambassadors and 600 TikTok Shop affiliates. The brand account uses library music and looks clean. But when the affiliate videos are checked, about one in five uses a chart song, and the brand has boosted 14 of them in the last quarter. Two of those songs appear in label lawsuits against other brands. Three ambassador videos are still running as ads after the agreed six months of paid use ended.
None of that shows up if you only look at your own account. All of it shows up if you look the way a label's monitoring team would: at every video promoting your product.
Every video comes back marked green (OK to run), yellow (check it soon) or red (fix now). Every red and yellow comes with a specific fix and has been confirmed by a trained reviewer. The red list is usually short and very specific: these ads, these songs, pause or re-cut. The yellow list is the cleanup your team works through over the next few weeks.
Questions your team should be able to answer
If a letter arrived tomorrow, your lawyer would ask a few simple questions. Most supplement brands can't answer them quickly, which is what makes these claims expensive. Which videos promoting our products used commercial songs in the last year? Which of those did we pay for, repost or boost? Which creators were still running our content after their rights ended? And when did we fix each one?
A check answers the first three on day one. The fourth is the record you build from that point on: every flag, the fix, and the date it was fixed. That record matters. It shows you found the problem and acted on it, which is very different from a brand that never looked. It also gives your legal team something concrete to work with instead of a scramble through old campaign folders.
It's also the answer to the question your boss will eventually ask, usually the week a competitor shows up in the news: "Are we exposed?" "We checked, here's the list, and here's what we fixed" is a much better answer than "I don't think so."
A simple rule for your creator program
Most of this risk disappears with three habits. Put a music line in every creator brief: original audio or the Commercial Music Library only on sponsored content. Check any creator or affiliate video before you boost it. And keep a list of what usage rights you agreed with each creator, with end dates, so nothing keeps running after the deal is over. Our free license tracker does that last part for you.
For what's already out there, start with a check of the last 90 days. It's from $500, free if there's nothing to fix, and results come back within 5 business days.
Check your supplement content
Common questions
Why would a label go after a supplement brand?
Because supplement marketing is heavy on creator and influencer videos with popular songs, and the brand is the one promoting and paying. Sony's case against Bang Energy, a drinks brand with a big fitness creator program, is the best-known example.
Are gym and workout videos treated differently?
No. A workout video that promotes your product is marketing. The background track needs to be cleared for commercial use like any other ad.
What about music playing in the gym in the background?
If a recognizable song is audible in a promotional video, it can still be a problem. Incidental music isn't automatically safe, especially in an ad.
Do affiliates on TikTok Shop count?
They can. Affiliate videos promote your products for a commission, and boosting them makes them your ads. Check them before you put money behind them.
Is this legal advice?
No. We find the problems and tell you how to fix them. For a specific claim, talk to a lawyer.
Related
General information, not legal advice. Platform rules and licenses change; check the current terms or ask your lawyer about your situation. Lawsuit figures are as reported and represent claims, not findings, unless noted.