Can you use trending sounds on a personal account to promote products?
Short answer
Not safely. Personal and creator accounts can pick from TikTok's full music library, but those songs are licensed for personal, non-commercial videos. Promoting products is commercial use whatever the account type. Switching a brand or founder account to “personal” to get trending sounds changes what you can click on, not what you're allowed to do. Brands, founders and creators doing paid promotion all need commercially cleared music.
The workaround everyone knows about
Business accounts on TikTok only see the Commercial Music Library: tracks cleared for marketing, which mostly aren't the songs going viral. So a well-known trick spread through marketing teams: switch the brand account to a personal or creator account, and the full library comes back. Or run the brand through the founder's personal account. Or have staff post product videos from their own profiles.
It works, in the sense that the songs become selectable. It doesn't work in the sense that matters. The music licenses behind TikTok's general library cover ordinary people making personal videos. They don't cover a company promoting what it sells, and they don't follow the account type. They follow the purpose of the post.
What makes a post commercial
There's no single test, but these signs make a post commercial in the eyes of rights owners and, often, courts:
- It shows or names a product you sell, with a link, code or price
- It's posted by a brand, a founder or an employee to drive sales
- It's a paid partnership, gifted-product post or affiliate video
- It's boosted, run as a Spark Ad or used in any paid media
- It's reposted, stitched or duetted by the brand account
The label lawsuits against brands have included posts from brand accounts, posts by paid influencers and posts the brands reposted. In the case against Bang Energy, the court found the company liable for videos posted by influencers it worked with. See the lawsuit tracker.
The founder-account version
Many small brands are built on the founder's personal TikTok, and the founder posts the way any creator would: trending sounds, day-in-the-life videos, product launches. It feels personal. But when a founder's videos sell the company's products, they're doing the company's marketing. A rights owner looking at a founder account with a Shop link in every video will see a brand account with a person's name on it.
The practical fix isn't to stop being personal. It's to keep the personal voice and change the soundtrack: original audio, voiceover, Commercial Music Library tracks, or a licensed library.
What about TikTok's branded content setting?
Creators doing paid promotions are expected to switch on TikTok's branded content disclosure. That's a transparency rule for viewers, and it's important. It doesn't license music. If anything, it works against the workaround: a disclosed paid partnership is clearly commercial, so trending hits from the general library are the wrong choice for exactly those posts. Check TikTok's current branded content and music guidance for the exact wording.
“But everyone does it”
Lots of accounts use the workaround, and most never hear about it. That's true, and it's not much comfort. Rights owners don't need to catch everyone; they pick brands where a list of posts adds up to real money. The brands sued so far weren't unusual. They were visible, they posted a lot, and their posts were easy to record. The more successful your account gets, the more it looks like the accounts that have already been named in complaints.
There's also a business cost beyond lawsuits. Retail buyers, investors and acquirers increasingly ask how a brand clears music in its marketing. An account built on borrowed songs becomes a diligence question at exactly the wrong moment.
A real-life pattern
A small skincare brand switches its account from business to creator in 2025 to use trending sounds, and its views triple. A year later it has 300 posts, around half with chart songs, plus a growing affiliate program. When the brand applies for a larger retail partnership, the buyer's legal team asks how the brand clears music in its marketing. There's no good answer, and the deal stalls while the account is cleaned up.
What to do instead
- Keep your brand on a business account and build a short list of Commercial Music Library tracks that fit your style.
- Lean on audio formats that don't need songs: voiceover, talking-head, ASMR, natural sound.
- If you want hits in a campaign, license them properly. It's possible, just not free; see how to license a song for an ad.
- Set the same rules for founder, staff, creator and affiliate content that promotes your products.
- Check what's already live. Old posts from the workaround period don't disappear on their own.
Where OKtoRun helps
We check brand, founder, creator and affiliate content for songs that aren't cleared for marketing, and mark each post green, yellow or red with a fix. A reviewer confirms every flag. The first check is from $500 for up to 100 posts, free if there's nothing to fix. Or start with the free check of your latest 20 posts.
General information, not legal advice. Platform terms change; check TikTok's current music and branded content rules.
Common questions
Can my brand switch to a creator account to use trending sounds?
You can switch, and the songs will appear, but using them to promote your products is still commercial use that those licenses don't cover.
I'm a founder posting on my personal account. Is that commercial?
If the posts promote your company's products, with links, codes or launches, they're doing your brand's marketing and should use cleared music.
Does turning on the branded content toggle make the music OK?
No. It's a disclosure for viewers. It doesn't license music, and it confirms the post is commercial.
Are employee posts about our products a problem?
They can be, especially if the brand asks for them, reposts them or boosts them. Give staff a short list of cleared tracks.
What about old posts from when we used the workaround?
They're still live and still count. Review them and swap the audio or archive the riskiest, starting with anything you've boosted.
Part of: TikTok music for brands
Related guides
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.