TikTok has crowned a 2011 Katy Perry track from her Teenage Dream album as its global Song of the Summer 2026, underscoring the platform’s growing reliance on catalog material to drive its most-viral moments.
The track’s win comes as catalog songs also swept the entirety of TikTok’s US Top 4 for the period, pushing new releases out of the platform’s most prominent summer rankings entirely.
The trend highlights how older recordings continue to find fresh audiences and renewed commercial value through short-form video platforms, a dynamic that labels and rights holders have increasingly leaned into for catalog monetization.
Read the full story at Music Business Worldwide.