(Review from our online class convos)
TikTok is a social platform app dedicated to sharing short-form videos. Initially, TikTok was known as Musical. ly—until it was purchased by the company known as ByteDance, which is based in China. Tiktok has over 1.5 billion downloads across the App Store and Google Play, making ByteDance worth $75 billion. That is three times more than Spotify is worth, but the artists whose music powers Tiktok are seeing very little of that money.
So how are the artist's paid from Tiktok? ByteDance pays Record Labels and Publishing Companies a one-time Licencing Fee for permission to use any music they want. The Labels and Companies use the fee money to pay all their artists according to their recording contracts. Views and the number of posts do not determine how much money an artist earns.
So, even if a post receives one million views, it makes no difference in the payout. Existing licensing agreements with owner ByteDance will expire this spring. Record Labels and Publishing Companies are now demanding more money for songs played on Tiktok. Artists believe their creativity is being used and exploited. ByteDance believes artists should be happy with the exposure and the free marketing opportunity. What do you think?

In a 5-7 sentence paragraph, answer the following questions:
Is it fair the way artists are paid from Tiktok? Why or Why not?
If you owned ByteDance, what are the ways you would pay artists more money from Tiktok?