TikTok Ban Deadline Extended: What This Means for Musicians on the App

Shortly before the April 5 deadline set for ByteDance to sell the social media app TikTok, Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the social media platform from being banned for another 75 days. The new deadline for ByteDance to sell or face a ban in the United States is now in mid-June of 2025. And the potential upcoming TikTok ban could have a serious impact on small businesses, influencers, and musicians who use the platform.

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Trump has said that he is “working very hard on a deal” to save the platform. Trump initially launched the campaign to ban TikTok but has slightly flipped his view of the application. He has extended the ban deadline for the app twice since taking office. The ban was originally signed into law (specifically, the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act) by President Joe Biden last year. It was held up by the Supreme Court days before Trump took office.

The ban originally required the platform to divest from its parent company, ByteDance, by January 19 and then by April 5. A number of potential buyers have shown interest in the platform. A few include Amazon, Perplexity AI, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

What the TikTok Ban Deadline Extension Means for Musicians

Some are happy with the ban extension. Others, however, have been over TikTok since it first went dark on January 19. Regardless of your feelings about the platform, one can’t deny that a lot of people use the app for their livelihoods. Influencers and small businesses use the app’s algorithm to advertise their products and services.

For musicians, TikTok has been a godsend for extending one’s reach in a highly saturated independent music world. What can musicians do if the app is actually banned in June?

To start, this isn’t the time to stop promoting your music on the platform. Continue taking advantage of TikTok’s algorithm to extend your reach as much as possible.

That being said, it’s important to keep in mind that ByteDance could refuse to sell the platform. They could simply disappear from the US market in June. And if they are bought by a US company, it’s not clear how negatively that will effect the app’s existing algorithm and function.

So, in the next few months, musicians should keep a few things in mind:

• TikTok is still very much usable and beneficial for building your listener base.
• Take advantage of the TikTok algorithm until June 2025.
• In the meantime, invest more time into reaching your audience organically. Spend time on other social media platforms or invest in your local music community.
• Look into alternative platforms that will likely pop up in the wake of TikTok’s ban or sale.

Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for TikTok

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