Every day, musicians on TikTok create songs that have a positive impact on people in their community and allow them to connect emotionally and creatively with an audience. We are committed to bringing this positive impact to our communities and are proud to partner with After-School All-Stars, Sony/ATV, and the Bandier Program to launch the inaugural Songwriting Academy. 

The Songwriting Academy allows All-Stars students the chance to showcase their unique voice and perspective through the creation of original lyrics honed with the mentoring and coaching of industry experts. Students will work through a curriculum designed by The Bandier Program that will cover music theory, use of technology, and the business of the music industry. To celebrate the Songwriting Academy, we've invited notable friends from our music community to share their personal success stories: Timbaland, Jozzy, Tiagz, Jack Harlow, JetsonMade, DJ Dahi, Ilsey Juber, Tainy, Anitta, Melanie Martinez and Mikey Keenan. 

When developing this program, our goal was to help students with less access to resources express themselves and utilize a platform to stand up for the communities affected by the inequities brought by COVID-19 and the ongoing racism that has been exposed through police brutality, the death of George Floyd, and many others in the Black community.

Starting on June 24th at 3pm PST, artists will go LIVE each week for the next four weeks to share their stories and their creative processes around some of their biggest songs. In-app, we will be featuring the hashtag #BehindTheSong in our Discover page for our music community to share their creativity.  

To join the livestreams simply tap the TikTok Summer Songwriting Academy banner in TikTok's Discover page, or simply go to @afterschoolallstars on TikTok. 

During these unprecedented times, we want to give a creative platform to a new generation of songwriters who may not have had access to such opportunities to express themselves with music.