How to Switch to an Artist Account on TikTok

Switching your TikTok to an Artist account is one of the most powerful moves you can make for your music career on the platform. This simple change unlocks a suite of features designed specifically for musicians, transforming your profile from a standard user page into a professional hub for your sound. This guide will walk you through exactly what an Artist account is, why you need one, and the step-by-step process to get it set up and start leveraging it to grow your fanbase.

What Is a TikTok Artist Account and Why Do You Need One?

On the surface, a TikTok Artist account might look similar to a personal or business account, but underneath, it’s completely different. It's designed to give musicians official credibility and direct control over how their music appears and performs on the platform. Think of it as the difference between just being a user on TikTok and being a creator whose music is part of TikTok's DNA.

Unlike a standard account, an Artist profile comes with a handful of game-changing benefits that separate you from the crowd and put your music front and center.

The Main Benefits of an Artist Account:

• The Official Music Tab: This is the signature feature. A "Music" tab featuring a record icon will appear on your profile. This tab aggregates all the TikTok videos that use your official songs, functioning as a living portfolio of your music's viral impact. It's a massive credibility booster that shows fans and industry folks that you are a verified musician on the platform.
• Pin Your Latest Release: With an Artist account, you gain the ability to "pin" a new song to the top of your music tab for up to 14 days. This is an incredible promotional tool, directing every visitor on your profile to your latest single or album track.
• Behind-the-Scenes Analytics: You get access to a special "Artist Hub" with data that other account types can't see. You'll be able to track how many videos have been created with your sounds, view your total number of catalog streams on the platform, and see demographic information about your listener base right inside TikTok.
• Get Your Music to an Official Level: It officially links your TikTok user profile to your artist identity on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. This connection signals to the algorithm and users that your music is legitimate, helping to build trust and authority.
• Amplify Your Reach (The “Promote” Feature): Artist accounts can leverage TikTok’s “Promote” feature specifically for their sounds. You can run campaigns encouraging other users to create videos with your song, directly fueling its potential to trend and go viral. Ticket integrations, merchandise links, and other commercial features often become available through the Artist Hub, too.

For independent artists, getting recognized by the algorithm is everything. An Artist account tells TikTok’s system, "Hey, this person is a musician, and this is their official track." This designation can help increase your song's visibility in search and make it easier for people to discover your music organically.

What You Need Before You Start

Before you can claim your Artist profile, there are a few prerequisites. This isn't just about tapping a button in your settings, it’s about having a legitimate music career foundation. Don’t worry, it's straightforward, and there are no follower minimums.

1. Your Music Must Be on Streaming Platforms

Your music has to be officially released and available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. You can’t just upload a song from your camera roll. This means you need a digital music distributor.

What's a Music Distributor?

A music distributor is the service that takes your song files and metadata and delivers them to all the major music services, including Spotify, Apple Music, and - most importantly for this task - TikTok. If you've ever released a song professionally, you already use one. Popular distributors include:

• TuneCore
• DistroKid
• CD Baby
• Ditto Music
• AWAL

This is a non-negotiable step. TikTok needs to verify you are a genuine artist by seeing that you have music distributed through its official channels.

2. You Need At Least One Published Track on TikTok

Through your distributor, you must have delivered at least one song to TikTok. When you upload new music to your distributor of choice, make sure you've selected "TikTok" as one of the platforms for distribution. When your song gets delivered, two things happen:

1. Your track becomes an official, searchable "Sound" in the TikTok library.
2. TikTok automatically creates a basic "Artist Page," a destination showcasing all the videos that use that song. This page exists separately from your personal user profile, waiting to be claimed.

3. A Public TikTok Account

Your user profile cannot be set to private. This one is simple but essential. Artists need to be discoverable!

Step-by-Step: How to Get Your Artist Account on TikTok

With those prerequisites in place, you are ready to claim your artist status. Unlike switching to a Business Account, claiming an Artist account is not always done directly in the TikTok app's main settings menu. Instead, the process has shifted, and it’s typically handled in one of two ways: through your distributor or via TikTok's Artist Hub website.

Method 1: Claim Through Your Distributor (Highly Recommended)

This is often the fastest and most reliable way to link your TikTok user profile with your official music persona. Most major distributors have integrations built for exactly this purpose. The steps vary slightly between platforms, but the general process is the same.

Example using DistroKid:

1. Log into your DistroKid account.
2. Navigate to the "Goodies" menu.
3. Look for the section called "Special Access."
4. Find and click on "TikTok."
5. Follow the on-screen prompts to select your artist name and link your TikTok account by authenticating it.

Example using TuneCore:

1. Log into your TuneCore account.
2. Go to the "Artist Services" section of your dashboard.
3. Look for an option called something like "TikTok Artist Profile" or "Social Platform Linking."
4. Select your artist, find the TikTok option, and enter your TikTok username (@handle).
5. Follow the instructions to verify your account.

Check your distributor's FAQ or artist services section for specific instructions. The entire purpose of this feature is to officially tell TikTok, "Hey, this user (@yourprofile) is the real person behind this artist's music catalog." Once submitted, the review process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, so be patient. When it’s approved, you'll see the "Music" tab magically appear on your TikTok profile.

Method 2: Use the TikTok for Artists Hub

TikTok is increasingly centralizing artist features within its official Artist Hub. If your distributor doesn't offer a direct integration, or if you want to try an alternative route, you can register directly.

1. Go to artists.tiktok.com on your web browser.
2. Sign up or log in with your TikTok account.
3. You'll get access to the "Artist Hub," which provides performance analytics for your songs.
4. Look for any options to "Claim Artist Profile" or "Get 'Music' Tab." You may be prompted to prove your artist identity.

This hub is where you can further manage your profile after verification, pin new releases, and watch analytics. Whether you get verified via your distributor or the hub itself, this will become your new home as an artist on TikTok.

You're an Artist Now! What's Next?

Switching to an Artist account is step one. Step two is growing your audience using these new tools.

1. Announce Your New Status

Make a video announcing that your music is now officially available on TikTok. Show fans your new "Music" tab and screen record yourself searching for your song in the sound library. This trains your early supporters on how to find and use your music.

2. Promote Your Pinned Song

When you have a new release, pin it immediately. Then, create 3-5 different short videos using that sound. Don't just make one and stop. Showcase the track’s versatility. Can people dance to it? Can they lip-sync to it? Can they use it for a moody aesthetic vlog? Show them the way.

3. Create an Easy Trend Around Your Sound

You don't need a complicated dance. The best trends are simple. Create a lipsync challenge, a relatable text overlay format ("That feeling when..."), or a simple point-and-reveal. The goal is to make a video template that is extremely easy for others to replicate with your audio.

4. Engage with Every User-Generated Video

Whenever someone uses your official sound, go to their video and leave a genuine comment. Like it. Maybe even add it to your favorites. This direct engagement from the artist is an incredible motivator. It encourages the original creator to share your music again and inspires their followers to do the same.

Final Thoughts

Switching to a TikTok Artist account is more than a vanity metric, it’s a strategic shift that validates your identity as a musician and equips you with powerful, purpose-built tools for music promotion. By getting your profile officially recognized, you unlock the ability to directly guide fans to your music, analyze your performance, and build momentum around new releases.

Once your Artist account is live, the work of consistent content creation and promotion truly starts. To handle posting your music-related videos across TikTok, Reels, and Shorts without juggling multiple apps, we built Postbase. We designed it for today's video-first world, so you can upload your content once and have it post reliably everywhere from one beautiful content calendar. This lets you stay organized around a single release, saving you hours marketing your music so you can get back to what matters: making it.