Most musicians are always looking to get more eyes and ears on their music, which is why they are constantly trying new methods and TikTok is one of the best ones today. In the past year, there were countless occasions when a TikTok video blew up reaching millions of people, and just after a few days, the song will climb up on the billboard’s top 100.
The story of TikTok
Most people don’t know that TikTok started as Musical.ly until it was purchased by a Chinese giant. The transition was seamless as Musical.ly profiles were transferred on their new TikTok app. At the time Musical.ly was used only for music, and people were shocked to wake up to a video sharing platform. However, TikTok still has a massive impact on the music industry.
TikTok also has a wide database of music that can be linked directly to Apple Music so musicians can use this platform to promote their full songs. Until now, TikTok hasn’t fully placed ads on its platform. People are still blowing up with their videos using organic reach. Brands are using to increase their digital influence, with the official NBA account, for example, having 11.5 million followers! Through their account you can learn more about the teams and players in the NBA odds, as well as funny moments and bloopers that help the brand seem more relatable and close to its audience.
TikTok Music
Even though we are talking about a video-sharing platform, as we mentioned earlier, TikTok offers a vast library of music through a distributor or Apple Music. That way artists can upload their original songs to the platform or use their own sound in the app to promote albums or singles. Since you have 15 seconds to make an impression with your audience you should promote catchy songs that users can use for lip-syncing and creating challenges.
How TikTok Impacts the Music Industry?
TikTok has a massive audience that is younger which is a gigantic target market for music artists. Additionally, TikTok demographic audience is responsible for creating trends that are easily spread all around the world. TikTok has a big impact on the music industry. One of the first songs that blew up on the platform was “Old Town Road” by Lil’ Nas X which helped the song climb to the top of the charts.
The song was played more than 67 million times on the platform and the best thing is that Lil Nas X didn’t pay a cent to promote the song. This is where the organic search becomes useful. There are many more similar examples, where new songs blew up and increased popularity on a global scale. Some even managed to be reborn from the past and some old hits even managed to climb the charts.
Songs like:
- Laxed (Siren Beat) – Jawsh 685 is featured in almost 60 million videos
- What You Know Bout Love – Pop Smoke is featured in 11 million videos
- M to the B – Millie B reached more than 7.5 million videos thanks to bellapoarch
- Tap In – Saweetie is used in more than 7.5 million videos
So, what does this mean to the music industry and record labels?
Well, the situation currently is a bit difficult for record labels. It is very hard to predict music patterns for new trends as a single video can change the future of many songs and artists. The music industry will change the ways they approach music. They will try to go after trends or create trends themselves that will be distributed through social media channels like TikTok in order to increase their organic search without investing a lot of money. Since TikTok is used by millions of people every day, it is very for songs to get stuck in your head just because it is used on most videos.
Unfortunately, all of the trends on TikTok are short-lived or in other words, the app can help the artist promote their song, but it quickly gets boring. Either way, you cannot avoid paying attention to a huge factor like TikTok if you are a part of the music industry. You should stay on top of trends since it can help you increase popularity and earnings from your songs.
