At the Global Influencer Marketing Awards 2026, I caught up with Paul Sampson, Founder and CEO of music licensing platform LICKD. We discussed how his company is revolutionising music rights for content creators and major brands, eliminating legal hurdles, and driving massive engagement through commercial tracks.
The 'Spotify for Content Creators'
Sampson told me how LICKD launched as the world's first mainstream music licensing platform tailored specifically for online content creators, with the aim of bridging the gap between major record labels and digital video producers.
"It's a bit like Spotify for content creators," Sampson explained. "It enables them for the first time to use mainstream major label artists, like Coldplay, Dua Lipa, and Bruno Mars, without any persecution in their YouTube content."
Having transformed how independent creators source commercial tracks, the platform expanded its model with LICKD for Brands to tackle a growing challenge across corporate social channels.
"There's been a billion dollars of lawsuits in the last four years between the music industry and brands for misuse of music on TikTok and Instagram," Sampson noted. "We used our technology and our expertise to solve that."
Boosting Engagement with Commercial Hits
Beyond mitigating copyright risk, Sampson explained that incorporating well-known commercial tracks delivers a direct performance lift for marketing campaigns.
"TikTok and Instagram will tell you themselves: famous, recognisable music to your audience will increase your engagement by 70% to 100%," Sampson stated. "Everyone here tonight is looking for ways to increase engagement, resonance with the audience, purchase intent, brand recall, and positive sentiment. Recognisable, famous music does that all for you."
Clearing commercial music rights traditionally required lengthy legal negotiations. Watch Sampson explain how LICKD for Brands dramatically condenses this workflow below:
"It's good for the audience, it's good for the brand, it's good for the influencers. It's a win-win, and it makes your content perform better," Sampson added.
