TikTok’s new tools will let creators collect tips from followers in full
The Creator Next toolset aims to help creators better monetise content.
Image: Wdnet Studio / Alamy
TikTok’s growth into a platform for music discovery has helped music-makers and content creators find new audiences, and through a new set of tipping tools, they can now also begin earning money directly from their fans.
Artists can now receive tips from their followers in full as part of TikTok’s new Creator Next toolset. To receive payments, they will have to sign up to Stripe, an Irish-American financial company, where they can manage their earnings through an online dashboard.
Video Gifts are another tool introduced in Creator Next, and will allow creators to earn tips based on engagement from non-live videos, on top of the existing Live Gifts function which serves livestreamed content.
Meanwhile, the TikTok Creator Marketplace is introduced as an official hub for brands and creators to collaborate.
To be eligible for Creator Next, users must be 18 or older, have at least 1,000 video views and three video uploads in the last 30 days, as well as meet a few region-dependent requirements.
Tipping now makes up a significant portion of earnings for artists and other content creators operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar functions have been added to platforms such as Spotify, SoundCloud, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
In September of this year, TikTok hit the one billion monthly user mark, signalling that the platform will continue to play a significant role in music discovery. Several big-name celebrities have joined the platform in recent months, including The Beatles, ABBA, Led Zeppelin and Taylor Swift.
