Alexa Shyama
On May 1, 2025, multiple Warner Music Group-affiliated music recording companies collectively filed a complaint against Designer Brands Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW). The charge? DSW allegedly used WMG’s music in its TikTok ads without a license, despite being a “55-year-old company, with decades of experience licensing music for advertising – including a history of licensing music from WMG.”1
Most crucially, this complaint alleges that “third-party social media influencers who created and distributed the DSW videos” have infringed on their copyrights by incorporating WMG’s music into their advertising videos, which are used to promote and market DSW’s products.2 The idea is that, by virtue of the fact that WMG did not authorize DSW to use their music for marketing videos, the social media users who then receive commission to create their own videos using WMG’s music for DSW, are also crossing WMG’s legal line.
Although WMG’s complaint was directed at the retail giant for inducing copyright violations and contributing to infringements, this nevertheless introduces a shaky precedent for a rising set of social media users. How does this affect aspiring business moguls who use TikTok and Instagram Reels to start and promote their online stores and products?
TikTok announced earlier this year that “sales to small US businesses have grown by 70% year-over-year” and noted that there were over 171,000 local and small businesses on TikTok Shop—TikTok’s in-house shopping platform that allows for purchasing through the social media platform itself.3 Similarly, Instagram enables users to enjoy similar capabilities, as it also features an in-app video platform, Reels, as well as an online storefront.4 Indeed, combining a video application with a shopping application leads to irresistible marketing strategies: film a video, sync it to a trending song, and sell a product, all without leaving the app.
The TikTok algorithm makes sure that when a user ‘likes’ a video with a particular audio, “they’ll be recommended other videos using that same audio.”5 It would then make sense that small business owners would look at the top trending songs on TikTok or Reels to promote themselves, as it increases the likelihood that their content will be viewed by a user who may not necessarily be seeking out their product or advertisement. Indeed, TikTok’s #1 trending song for the summer of 2024 was ‘Million Dollar Baby’ by Tommy Richman, amassing a whopping 8.4 million videos created using the song as audio.6 A quick look through the videos using the song reveals a smattering of small business owners using it to showcase their high-end, ‘million-dollar’ products.
However, a small business owner on TikTok or Instagram, who may not necessarily have the means or resources to hire a legal team, may not be aware of the legal ramifications associated with using a popular song in their advertisement. Just like WMG noted that social media influencers using WMG’s music for their DSW endorsements were infringing on WMG’s copyrights, these up-and-coming business owners may get hit with similar infringement suits for unwittingly using copyrighted music. Beyond financial stakes, an artist could also claim that the usage of their music for an advertisement could be “compromising their personal values”—like Lorde and Mick Jagger requiring permission before their music is used for political campaigns on TikTok.7
Of course, there’s a significant wrinkle: WMG targeted DSW, a deep-pocketed retailer that already knows the ropes of licensing. It is important to note that both complaints mentioned that a primary reason the plaintiffs filed suit was that the defendants in both cases were major companies already familiar with the licensing processes. A brand-new Etsy seller doubling as their own marketing team is not nearly as tempting a target. Still, the case highlights how blurred the line has become between casual content and commercial promotion, especially as platforms transform videos into storefronts.
So, what counts as fair play? What is the line between a regular user and a business owner? When is music used for the promotion of products or to garner attention? And is music the only intellectual property risk to worry about, or will visual elements, brand logos, and even memes become a problem soon? As social commerce booms, the background soundtrack of entrepreneurship may be headed for center stage.
[1] Complaint at 2, Atlantic Recording Corp. v. Designer Brands Inc., No. 2:25-cv-00479, (S.D. Ohio May 1, 2025).
[2] Id. at 16.
[3] TikTok Newsroom, TikTok Shop is where shoppers come to discover (June 13, 2025), https://newsroom.tiktok.com/tiktok-shop-is-where-shoppers-come-to-discover?lang=en.
[4] See Steven Melendez, Facebook and Instagram are about to become small-business shopping hubs (May 19, 2020), https://www.fastcompany.com/90506505/facebook-and-instagram-are-about-to-become-small-business-shopping-hubs.
[5] Yauhen Zaremba, How TikTok Algorithm Works: Score a Chance at The FYP Page, https://curator.io/blog/how-the-tiktok-algorithm-works (last visited Oct. 2, 2025).
[6]See TikTok Newsroom, TikTok's US and Global Songs of the Summer 2024 revealed (Aug. 19, 2024), https://newsroom.tiktok.com/tiktok-songs-of-the-summer?lang=en.
[7] See Benjamin Lee, Lorde and Mick Jagger urge politicians to seek permission before using music, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/28/lorde-neil-young-mick-jagger-letter-politicians-music-clearance (July 28, 2020).