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The music copyright conversation in 2025 has become dominated by TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube—the platforms where short-form video and trending audio drive engagement. Yet brands maintain active presences on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter/X, and other platforms where music usage raises equally complex licensing questions. These "forgotten" platforms receive far less attention in copyright discussions, creating blind spots that put brands at significant legal risk[78][80].
LinkedIn has positioned itself as the platform for professional content, where thought leadership and business networking take precedence over entertainment. This professional focus creates a dangerous assumption: that LinkedIn's business-oriented nature somehow exempts content from the same music licensing requirements governing other social platforms[84].
It doesn't. When brands add music to LinkedIn video content—whether in posts, articles, or Stories—they need proper licensing just as they would for Instagram Reels or YouTube videos[84][87]. The copyright laws protecting musical compositions and sound recordings make no distinction based on platform purpose or audience demographics.
LinkedIn doesn't provide an in-app music library like TikTok or Instagram. Users who want to add music to LinkedIn videos must upload their own audio files, creating the illusion that LinkedIn doesn't engage with music licensing at all[84]. In reality, this simply shifts the licensing responsibility entirely to users. There's no pre-cleared catalog, no licensed sounds, and no platform protection—only the requirement that brands secure appropriate rights before uploading content containing music.
For commercial LinkedIn content, this means brands need either synchronization licenses from rights holders or music from royalty-free libraries that explicitly cover social media and commercial use[84][87]. The "professional" nature of the content doesn't matter legally; if a brand video promoting services features copyrighted music without a license, it infringes regardless of whether it appears on LinkedIn, TikTok, or a television commercial.
Pinterest spent years as a primarily visual platform where music wasn't a significant factor. That changed dramatically in October 2022 when Pinterest secured partnerships with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Merlin, and BMG, bringing licensed music to its Idea Pins feature[79][82][85].
Idea Pins, Pinterest's answer to TikTok and Instagram Stories, allow creators to build multi-page posts combining images, video, music, and text. With the new music deals, users gained access to tracks from artists like Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and Anitta—a significant expansion from Pinterest's previously limited royalty-free library[79][82].
However, Pinterest's music licensing comes with the same personal-versus-commercial divide plaguing other platforms. The platform's Music Terms of Use explicitly state: "Unless a song is designated as 'Royalty-free,' you may only use that song for personal, non-commercial purposes"[88]. Brands using Pinterest for business purposes cannot freely select from the licensed music catalog. They're restricted to royalty-free tracks or must obtain commercial licenses separately.
Pinterest's interface doesn't make this distinction particularly clear. When creating Idea Pins, users see a unified music library without prominent warnings about commercial use restrictions[94]. The assumption that "if Pinterest shows me the music, I can use it" leads brands into the same licensing trap present on Instagram and Facebook—except on a platform where music copyright enforcement receives far less attention and brands have been slower to recognize the risks.
Twitter, now rebranded as X under Elon Musk's ownership, represents perhaps the most problematic platform for music licensing because it has largely refused to engage with the issue at all. While TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitch all negotiated licensing deals with major labels and publishers, X has resisted similar agreements[80][83][86].
This stance led to a $250 million lawsuit filed in 2023 by the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), representing 17 music publishers including Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Music Publishing, and Warner Chappell Music[80][102]. The lawsuit alleged that X knowingly facilitated and profited from copyright infringement involving more than 1,700 songs, including hits like "Uptown Funk," "All I Want For Christmas," and "Anti-Hero"[80].
The NMPA's complaint emphasized that "Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service"[80][86]. Unlike other platforms that face copyright claims but have underlying licensing frameworks, X allows users to post videos containing copyrighted music with minimal consequences—typically temporary suspensions rather than account removal[80].
As of June 2025, X and the music publishers were in "good faith negotiations" to settle the lawsuit, suggesting that licensing agreements may eventually materialize[83][86]. Until then, X remains a legal gray area where brands posting video content with music operate without any platform-level licensing protection.
For brands, this creates maximum risk. X provides no commercial music library, no pre-cleared tracks, and no licensing infrastructure. Any video posted to X containing copyrighted music requires separate licensing arrangements with rights holders[87][92]. X's hands-off approach means brands bear complete responsibility for ensuring they have proper rights to any music in their content.
The forgotten platforms illuminate a broader problem facing brands: every social media site maintains separate music licensing deals, creating a fragmented landscape where a single piece of content may be compliant on one platform and infringing on four others[78][129].
A brand that creates a video for TikTok using music from the Commercial Music Library cannot legally repost that same video to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or X without removing and replacing the audio[3][129]. TikTok's licenses cover only TikTok itself. Similarly, music selected from Instagram's library is cleared for Instagram but not for Facebook, YouTube, or any other destination[22][37].
This platform-specific licensing structure makes the increasingly popular "create once, publish everywhere" content strategy a legal minefield[131][134]. Brands seeking to maximize ROI from video production by distributing the same content across multiple platforms must either use music that's independently licensed for all channels or produce platform-specific versions with different audio tracks.
Third-party royalty-free licensing services like Soundstripe, Epidemic Sound, and Audio Network specifically address this problem by providing music with explicit multi-platform rights[119][131]. When brands license music from these services, they receive documentation confirming that their license covers TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other platforms specified in the agreement. This approach costs more than using free platform-provided music, but it's the only way to legally implement a true cross-platform video strategy.
Music labels and publishers have devoted enormous resources to monitoring and enforcing copyrights on major platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Recent lawsuits against DSW, Crumbl Cookies, Marriott, and the University of Southern California demonstrate the industry's aggressive stance on social media infringement[98][99][101][108].
However, enforcement on platforms like LinkedIn and Pinterest has been comparatively light—not because violations don't occur, but because rights holders have focused their attention where the most visible and valuable content appears[78]. This creates a false sense of security. Brands assume that because they haven't heard about LinkedIn music copyright lawsuits, the risk must be minimal.
The reality is that rights holders can pursue infringement claims regardless of platform. Copyright law doesn't distinguish between a video posted to TikTok and one posted to LinkedIn—both require proper licensing when they include copyrighted music for commercial purposes[87]. As music publishers exhaust the most obvious enforcement targets on major platforms, they're increasingly likely to expand their attention to previously overlooked channels.
The fundamental lesson from these forgotten platforms is that music licensing requirements are universal, even when platforms themselves provide no licensing infrastructure. Brands cannot assume that a platform's lack of a formal music library means music copyright doesn't apply. They cannot assume that professional platforms like LinkedIn have different legal standards than entertainment platforms like TikTok.
Every commercial use of copyrighted music requires proper licensing, regardless of where the content appears. That means brands operating across multiple platforms must either secure music licenses that explicitly cover all their distribution channels or use platform-specific music selected separately for each destination[84][87][119].
For LinkedIn, this means using only royalty-free music from licensed libraries or obtaining direct sync licenses. For Pinterest, it means selecting only tracks designated as royalty-free or obtaining commercial licenses. For X, given the platform's lack of licensing deals, it means avoiding copyrighted music entirely unless brands have secured independent licenses from rights holders.
The forgotten platforms underscore a broader truth about social media music copyright: the rules are the same everywhere, even when the enforcement isn't. Brands that recognize this can build compliant content strategies that work across their entire social media presence. Those that assume smaller platforms or professional platforms play by different rules are simply waiting for the expensive moment when rights holders prove them wrong.
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