‘You Don’t Give A F*ck’: Kota Banks Blasts TikTok Trial

Kota Banks took to TikTok today to detail her experience with the platform's latest trial.

The trial, which is taking place in Australia, is restricting some users from accessing major label-licensed music in their videos.

In a statement to The Music Network, a spokesperson from TikTok Australia stated that "some of our users will not be able to access our full music and sounds library". They added: "For more than half of our community there will be no change to their experience and the test will not impact them.”

Kota Banks, one of Australia's most promising alternative pop artists, is one of the artists who does not have access to their full music library. This includes even her own songs.

She took to TikTok today to share what's been going on and to vent her frustration, with multiple artists who have worked tirelessly on their music claiming they aren't able to promote it.

She says that the tests are "extremely frustrating for me and my fellow independent Australian artists".

Banks continues stating that she is in the "unlucky half that doesn't have access to as many sounds, even my own music. I just released a song that I'm so proud of. I'm an independent artist so I don't have much budget and a lot of what I released is self-funded".

"TikTok after begging independent content creators and artists to promote their own music on the platform literally turned around and said it's fine if 50% of users don't have access to their own sounds," Banks says.

She continues, "You want to use us but you don't really give a fuck."

"It's already so hard for Australian independent artists and now we are the test. Just feels wack to be a guinea pig. We all put our heart and soul into these releases. A lot of my peers reached out to me after I posted about this.

"I would like to beg TikTok on behalf of all independent Australian artists to dead this test that they're running, or find a more artist-friendly way to do this analysis.

"It feels lazy and inconsiderate, surely there is another way to run these tests."