TikTok Launches Podcast Network with iHeartMedia

TikTok and iHeartMedia have teamed as much as create the brand new TikTok Podcast Community, a portfolio that can home as much as 25 podcasts hosted by TikTok creators. The reveals will likely be distributed by iHeartPodcasts and can air throughout all main audio platforms.To assist the event of recent reveals, the 2 corporations are opening co-branded podcast studios in Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta.The deal, introduced Monday, will create “thrilling new alternatives for creators to succeed in wider audiences, collaborate throughout platforms and lengthen their creativity past the TikTok platform,” Dan Web page, TikTok’s world head of media and licensing partnerships, mentioned in an announcement shared with ADWEEK. “Collectively, we’re amplifying the connection between artists, creators and our group via the shared energy of cross platform storytelling.”The partnership will even lengthen into conventional broadcast radio with the rollout of TikTok Radio, a brand new iHeartRadio station that goals to recreate the sensation of scrolling the TikTok app, however in audio type. On TikTok Radio, iHeart DJs will play songs which might be trending or up-and-coming on the TikTok app, alongside brief commentary about why these tracks are blowing up and the tales behind them. TikTok Radio will likely be broadcast throughout some radio stations nationwide and also will be accessible digitally on iHeartRadio.“This partnership connects TikTok’s cultural power and creator group with the unequalled scale and attain of iHeartMedia,” mentioned Wealthy Bressler, president, COO and CFO for iHeartMedia, in an announcement. “We’re giving creators entry to the largest audio platforms in America—creating new methods to inform tales, entertain, and construct deeper connections with followers.”He added that bringing collectively TikTok’s and iHeartMedia’s broad networks will permit content material distribution at “huge scale.”The collaboration between TikTok and iHeartMedia, which kicked off earlier this 12 months with a singing competitors hosted on TikTok Dwell, will even broaden to incorporate dwell occasions. The audio firm plans to welcome creator storytelling to its flagship occasions, together with the iHeartRadio Music Competition and the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball.iHeartMedia has been quickly increasing its media partnerships as audio attracts extra listeners and advert {dollars} by the 12 months. This 12 months, iHeartMedia has added new voices to its girls’s sports activities community, created in tandem with Deep Blue Sports activities + Leisure, and likewise deepened its partnership with Amazon’s demand-side platform to simplify advert shopping for throughout its properties.The launch of the TikTok Podcast Community comes simply two months after President Trump struck a cope with Chinese language officers to carry TikTok’s U.S. operations beneath the remit of a consortium of largely U.S.-based corporations and traders—following years of debate over the privateness and nationwide security dangers posed by the platform’s ties to China. As a part of that deal, Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX wealth fund could be lead traders of TikTok U.S., holding a mixed 45% stake. The video app’s China-based mother or father firm, ByteDance, will retain round a 20% possession stake within the U.S. entity.