Music licences for Instagram and TikTok

How this comparison was made

The table lists the providers on this site whose own licence or help pages say something about Instagram or TikTok. The order is alphabetical. Each line comes from the provider page linked under Sources, read on 13 November 2026. Nothing was tested by posting videos, and no provider paid to be included.

Provider	Instagram	TikTok	What it says
Artlist	Yes	Yes	Social plan clears 1 Instagram and 1 TikTok account. Pro clears 3 per platform.
Bensound	Yes	Yes	Recommends no more than 60 seconds of music per TikTok video.
Envato	Yes	Yes	Allowed if you turn off remixing and stitching.
Epidemic Sound	Yes	Yes	Creator plan links one account per platform.
NCS	Not stated	Not stated	Usage policy says free "across YouTube & Twitch".
StreamBeats	In progress	In progress	Still "working to make StreamBeats safe" on Meta and TikTok.

Providers missing from the table did not address these platforms in the pages that were read.

The catch

A licence gives you the right to use the music. It does not switch off a platform's matching system, and on Instagram and TikTok there is often no safelist for the provider to add you to.

Two providers say this plainly. Artlist says TikTok "may mute, block, or remove videos that contain copyrighted audio, even when that audio is fully licensed." Bensound says "Even with a valid Bensound license, Meta enforces its own territorial limitations, which cannot be appealed."

What to do when a licensed video is flagged

On Instagram or Facebook. Epidemic Sound's instruction is to appeal the copyright claim in the app, then contact it with your account email, the page URL, the track and screenshots. Bensound says that for mutes other than territorial ones you can "click on 'Restore Audio' or select the 'Appeal' button."

On TikTok. Appeal from the notification and name your licence. The TikTok appeal guide has the steps.

TikTok's one-minute problem

TikTok's Music Terms generally permit up to one minute of a song. Providers work around it in different ways. Bensound recommends staying at 60 seconds or under. Artlist warns that more than a minute of non-TikTok music can be muted. Epidemic Sound says its tracks can run longer than 60 seconds "if you add the music to your video in an external, off-app editing software before uploading".

If your videos run past a minute, that difference is worth more than the price difference between plans.

Settings the licences require

• Envato. Turn off remixing and stitching, so other people cannot reuse the track from your video.
• Bensound. Do not register your videos with Meta's Rights Manager.
• Epidemic Sound. Commercial posts on TikTok need the Pro plan and a TikTok Business Account.

What is missing

Instagram's own rules are not in this guide. Its help pages could not be read when this was checked, so everything about Instagram above is what music providers say, not what Instagram says.