TikTok is breaking new artists every week from every corner of music, and it’s all thanks to the platform’s incredible ‘For You’ page.
With more than one billion monthly active users, TikTok is the hottest social media platform on the planet. Artists worldwide use the video-sharing app to find new fans and engage their audience, often without leaving their homes, and thousands more join each week hoping to do the same.
But how do you stand out? When everyone is making content, what is the point of adding to the noise if nobody can see what you’re making?
TikTok’s For You Page is the answer. Unlike any other explore page, TikTok’s For You section delivers unique content to users based on their individual preferences. As users continue interacting with the app, TikTok uses that engagement to predict what content will keep people on the platform longer. It’s an incredible feat of programming, and it’s the one place in social media where it seems, at least for now, that everyone has an equal chance of going viral.
In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell shares a series of tips that will increase the likelihood of going viral on TikTok. He explains how the company’s algorithm feeds content to users and what steps creators can take to position themselves for success on the platform.
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
Do people really listen to the music that goes viral on TikTok? A new report finds the answer is an ecstatic “Yes!”
Ever since “Old Town Road” first went viral, music professionals and artists hoping to get attention have looked to TikTok to help break new talent. The popular video-sharing platform welcomes hundreds of millions of users every month. To date, more than 100 songs that initially rose to popularity on the app have found their way onto the Billboard charts. The working theory in music is that no other platform can make an artist or song known faster than TikTok, and the data from a pair of new industry reports seem to agree.
A music perceptions study was conducted in November 2020 by MRC Data, while a study about TikTok’s impact on culture was handled in March 2021 by London-based Flamingo Group. Both surveys were conducted online, polling nearly 1,500 TikTok users. Highlights from both studies were revealed Wednesday morning in a TikTok blog post.
With music discovery being one of the platform’s most talked-about attributes, it won’t surprise most music marketers to learn that 75% of TikTok visitors discover artists there, while 63% say it’s a source for music they’ve not heard before and 72% indicating they associate certain songs with TikTok.
A few examples of TikTok’s growing influence:
Lil Nas X first rose to popularity following TikTok’s embrace of “Old Town Road.” That song now holds the title for the most consecutive weeks at number one—ever.
Blanco Brown, rising country superstar, found a deal after his track “The Git Up” and its accompanying dance challenge spawned thousands of videos.
Fleetwood Mac’s hit “Dreams” experienced its biggest success in decades after a video of a man listening to the song while riding a skateboard drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice went viral. Ocean Spray later bought the man a truck.
Claire Rosinkranz, Dixie D’Amelio, Powfu, Priscilla Block, Bella Porch, and Tai Verdes are some of the more than 70 musicians who have signed label deals following TikTok success.
In a study conducted in May by MusicWatch for trade group Digital Media Assn. (DiMA), in which respondents could choose more than one source, the leading driver cited for music discovery was audio streaming services at 47%, followed closely by video streaming services at 45% and AM/FM radio at 41%. In that study, posts from video or dance sites like TikTok, Instagram’s Reels, and Triller were cited by 29% of respondents, right behind “posts or alerts” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat at 30%. Other factors, like music placed in film, TV, or video games ranked higher, with music in movies polling at 35%, while recommendations from family or friends ranked even higher at 39%.
The one factor that is hard to study is how TikTok’s influence compares to that of other platforms.
“Since 100% of the music fan base doesn’t all stream, or play video games, or watch dance videos, etc., it’s good to see how these user segments react differently when it comes to discovery or anything else for that matter,” says MusicWatch managing partner Russ Crupnick.
Still, it’s clear TikTok is a platform where artists from all corners of life are finding success. If you have yet to open an account, or if you need help getting started, we’ve got the clip for you:
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
The key to music promotion on TikTok and Instagram is finding multiple ways to push the same material. We can help.
Video is the future of music promotion, and the future of video exists on TikTok. The massive social media platform has an engaged global audience who look to the video-sharing platform to discover their new favorite creators, movies, books, television shows, and music. Artists who capture TikTok users’ attention see an enormous boost to their streaming numbers. That kind of action is known to turn heads throughout the music business, and we can help you get it.
In the latest Music Biz update, host James Shotwell breaks down eleven proven music promotion tactics for TikTok. He explains how artists can approach single promotion from various angles and the value of each. He also shares how many of these ideas will work for Instagram’s Reels feature.
PLEASE NOTE: The suggestions made in this video are most applicable to artists with recorded music. Those still writing their next hit may find the tips in this video useful, but for the best results, we recommend waiting until your music is widely available to the general public.
Don’t have time for the video? We’ve got you covered:
Lip-synch your new song in a studio space to offer users a glimpse at the creative process.
Lip-synch your new song while doing an activity that helps emphasize the aesthetic of your track. If you wrote a song about late-night drives, then shoot your video while driving at night. If you wrote it for a party, lip-synch at a gathering of close friends. Treat this clip like a short music video.
Use your new song as the sound for your clip and post captions of the lyrics on-screen to help people learn how to sing along at future concerts.
Post videos about the story behind the song. Tell your audience why you wrote the song, what you hope they take from it, etc.
While using the new song as the sound of your video, post behind-the-scenes footage of the writing and recording process. Fans LOVE to see what goes into creating a track.
Record a live acoustic (stripped) version of the track. That will showcase the song in a new light. It also helps emphasize your raw talent.
Record the acoustic (stripped) version and use the sound to create new versions of the previously mentioned lip-synch videos. Again, this allows you to showcase the message and energy of the track in exciting new ways.
Use both an early demo of your new song and the final mix in a single video to showcase how your creativity evolves.
While using your music as the sound on a video, showcase your latest merch and tell fans where they can buy the items they want. Emphasize the limited quantities available, and be sure to tie the merch to chosen sound whenever possible.
Instead of lip-synching over your video, share performance clips of the instruments involved in the song. For example, you can make a video of your drumming playing the chorus to the track.
Leverage fan-generated content. Duet, stitch, and critique fan videos. Download their clips and re-upload them to your account (while giving credit) to promote and engage with your community.
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
With the most global downloads of any social media platform, TikTok is looking to evolve in new and exciting ways during 2021.
It’s good to be the best. TikTok is the largest social media platform on the planet. Every day, thousands of clips from the popular service are shared on competing platforms, and many of those videos earn millions of views. Kombucha Girl? That was TikTok. Lil Nas X and “Old Town Road”? TikTok gave us that as well. The career of “Mood” rapper 24kgoldn? TikTok heard him first.
The threat of bans hasn’t stopped the company’s growth, and many believe 2021 will be TikTok’s biggest year yet. Now, rumors are exploding only that TikTok will abandon its one-minute time limit for clips in preference of longer content. A recent report says the company is experimenting with allowing users to create content up to three-minutes in length. There is no release date at this time, and additional details are scarce, but it seems clear the TikTok will be evolving in the new year.
With this Music Biz News update, host James Shotwell explains the latest rumors. He also weighs the pros and cons of such changes, as well as the surprising reasons Bytedance may be looking to evolve. For more music industry news and perspective, subscribe!
Brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Join today and receive a one-month free trial of the same service Bruce Springsteen, Slipknot, blink-182, and thousands more trust to share their music with the press. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
Just days after the US Department Of Commerce announced plans to ban TikTok, the social media app lives on thanks to a potential sale.
TikTok is fully operational in the United States as of today, September 22. The social media app, which was set to be banned last Sunday, was spared its untimely fate thanks to a last-ditch effort from Oracle and Wal-Mart to purchase the company over the weekend. President Trump has approved the sale in principle, but conflicting reports from the companies involved leave many questions unanswered.
According to Variety, virtually every person and every company involved in the acquisition of TikTok disagrees on the terms of this deal. The deal approved by Trump allegedly makes Oracle the cloud provider and host of TikTok. That means the company will move its data stateside, and that U.S. citizens will control the data.
Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, whose Beijing headquarters are at the center of the platform’s controversy, disagrees.
What isn’t disputed: Oracle plans to take a 12.5% stake, and Walmart will get 7.5% in pre-IPO equity in TikTok Global. The new company will be based in the U.S. and run on the Oracle Cloud platform. ByteDance will continue to maintain control over the A.I. algorithms that power the TikTok app’s video recommendations (and which ByteDance uses for the similar Douyin app, available in China). The deal values TikTok at as much as $60 billion, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.
Trump previously claimed the only adequate deal would be one where a US-controlled TikTok. ByteDance claims it will retain majority control, as it believes the remaining 80% of pre-IPO equity belongs to them, but that might not be true.
To make sense of this, Music Biz News host James Shotwell put together a video explaining how we got here and what may happen next.
President Trump's executive order against Bytedance-owned TikTok goes into effect this Sunday, September 20.
President Trump’s executive order against Bytedance-owned TikTok goes into effect this Sunday, September 20.
The US Department of Commerce announced on Friday, September 18, that the maintenance and distribution of TikTok in US app stores would be prohibited starting Sunday, September 20.
Friday’s news follows a series of threats from the Trump administration toward TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and other Chinese-owned tech companies. The president began that such bans would happen in early August alongside allegations that the Chinese government could use the data collected by tech companies against the United States.
Starting Sunday, September 20, TikTok will disappear from both the Apple and Google app stores. Consumers who already have the app will still be able to access its content and create new videos until November 12. No further updates will be accessible, which may cause a degradation of service over time.
“The only real change as of Sunday night will be [TikTok users] won’t have access to improved apps, updated apps, upgraded apps or maintenance,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday morning on Fox Business.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Ross. “At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.”
ByteDance may save TikTok’s presence in the states by making a deal with an American-owned corporation to house data stateside. Several corporations have expressed an interest in such partnerships, and some have floated the idea of purchasing the platform altogether. As of this posting, no deals have been made.
The complete loss of TikTok would be a major blow to music discovery at a time when the entertainment business is already in dire straights. The platform has launched dozens of careers in recent years, including breakout talent such as Lil Nas X and ppcocaine.
Additional updates on TikTok are likely to surface in the coming weeks. Follow Haulix on Facebook and YouTube for news.
TikTok promotes itself as a platform where creatives can become stars overnight, but how exactly does that work?
TikTok has quickly become the premier music discovery platform on the planet. More than half a billion people use TikTok every month, and they are helping raise a new generation of talent that may otherwise never have a chance at success. Lil Nas X is perhaps the best example of TikTok’s power, but since “Old Town Road” became a global sensation, more than a dozen additional artists have come out of nowhere to take the app’s community by storm.
But how does that happen? Algorithms play a part, of course, but how does a relatively unknown talent captivate an audience of millions in a matter of days or weeks with a single song? Could it really be talent alone?
Lol. No. Of course.
A recent feature from Rolling Stone found that the answer to this modern mystery is as old as the music business itself. Regardless of all the technological advances of TikTok boasts and its incredibly inventive userbase, money is the common trait amongst every success story. Artists and labels alike are pouring thousands of dollars into each song promotion. Influencers receive cash to create clips that inspire their millions of followers to imitate their behaviors and continue using a specific song or sound.
The biggest moneymaker on TikTok is Charli D’Amelio, a twenty-something that demands around $30,000 per song promotion. Other influential creatives charge between $2,000 and $20,000 per placement, but again, there is no guarantee of success.
In this episode of Music Biz, host James Shotwell demystifies how songs succeed on TikTok with a straightforward answer that will not appeal to everyone. He also expresses caution for artists that may be considering influencer marketing for their next single. Check it out:
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Sign up today and receive your first month free. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
TikTok is growing faster than ever thanks to Coronavirus, and artists on the platform are witnessing a surge in engagement.
If you thought TikTok was the latest in a long series of ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ social media platforms – think again. The video-sharing app is growing in leaps and bounds, especially in light of COVID-19. The novel coronavirus is forcing everyone to stay inside, so anyone not yet converted to the world of TikTok now has plenty of time to assimilate.
Artists on TikTok are benefitting from the rise in content and new users in significant ways. After Lil Nas X, Ashnikko, and Blanco Brown took off in 2019, the latest crop of talent building massive followings on the platform is more diverse than ever. There are newcomers to mainstream pop, such as Jack Harlow and Doja Cat, as well as countless independent musicians whose current level of success is owed almost entirely to the TikTok community. Still, others are the kind of bizarre talent that only sees recognition because the internet loves weird things.
Some songs succeed on TikTok after users create action-based trends with a specific track. One recent example of that would be Powfu’s single, “Death Bed (Coffer For Your Head).” Users have paired the song with clips of themselves expressing their previously unspoken feelings for close friends. Check it out:
The majority of TikTok users are young. 66% of the app’s audience is below thirty years old, and many of its most famous users are younger than twenty. More than 800 million people use TikTok every month. The average user spends 52-minutes on the app per day. That engagement is exposing people to a lot of music, and that discovery is propelling many unknown artists and groups to success.
Even more impressive is TikTok’s engagement stats. TikTok has the highest follower engagement rate in social media. The average post receives engagement from 8-9.5% of the account’s following. That figure doesn’t count the engagement on posts found by users browsing the platform’s many video feeds, which are far easier to navigate than Twitter lists or Instagram’s ‘For You’ page.
Still, finding the next big thing by scrolling TikTok posts can be difficult. The app currently has no chart system in place, so the only way to understand what songs are popular is to watch a lot of videos.
Every label and artist would love to experience the level of viral success TikTok can provide, but users of the platform tend to enjoy hip-hop and pop music more than any other genre. The artists seeing the most success on the app often blur genre lines while delivering infectious and straightforward melodies. As a result, a great hook or strong opening can mean more than the quality of a song overall.
We cannot tell you how to make TikTok users fall in love with your music. We are researching that topic, but so far, the best advice anyone has given us is to ensure your songs are as immediately catchy as possible. To further prove this point, we took the most popular songs on the platform right now (April 1, 2020) and put them into a Spotify playlist. Check it out:
With multiple songs going viral on TikTok simultaneously, Tokyo’s Revenge is the video-sharing platform’s first breakout star of 2020.
Ask any regular TikTok viewer if they know a rap song that features a barking ad-lib, and their brain fills with flashbacks to countless clips. Ask that same user if they also know a song that features the line, “that’s a thot,” and their eyes will roll back as another avalanche of memories featuring looping videos with dancing people floods their brain. These tracks are commonplace on TikTok, and they have been for the better part of three months.
Both songs are the creation of Tokyo’s Revenge, a fast-rising rapper hailing from Connecticut. The young artist has never revealed his real name or age, and according to a recent interview with Complex, he prefers anonymity.
He explains, “For now, while I’m still a dickhead, I can be like, ‘I’m 444 years old.’ I want to stay as anonymous as possible”. Adding, “I don’t really care that much, but I try to hold back as much information as possible, so people think about me and the music separately.”
Tokyo’s Revenge began posting music online in 2018. His first taste of success came with the release of “GOODMORNINGTOKYO!” on Soundcloud in the summer of 2019. The track went viral on the music-sharing platform, amassing millions of plays, but the music industry at large barely noticed his rising profile.
In November 2019, Tokyo’s Revenge again went viral with the release of “THOT!” The song, which references Drake and lasts under three-minutes, feels built for the social media age. The track features a hypnotic beat backing lyrics that display intelligence and humor in equal measure. It’s the kind of song you cannot shake, one that lodges itself inside your mind and plays on repeat at all hours of the day.
According to Google Trends, Tokyo’s Revenge has skyrocketed in popularity since the beginning of December 2019
Both neither “GOODMORNINGTOKYO!” Or “THOT!” would be a topic of conversation today without TikTok. Beginning in December 2019, both tracks found a massive audience on the ByteDance-owned platform. The first to win over users was “THOT!,” which was aided in part by a viral dance trend.
To date, the original upload of “THOT!” has inspired more than 200,000 TikTok videos, with countless more created from remixes and separate (unauthorized) uploads.
Fans of “THOT!” soon learned that Tokyo’s Revenge has other songs tailor-made for TikTok clips. Pinning down who was the first to use “GOODMORNINGTOKYO!” is almost impossible given the current tools made available by the platform. Still, there are now more than 1.1 million videos using the song. The most popular trend amongst these clips is for content creators to act out the ad-libs. For example, people bark. Check it out:
It’s safe to assume there are more than 1.5 million TikTok videos in existence today that use music created by Tokyo’s Revenge. Those clips have millions and millions of views, which has helped both songs — as well as the rest of the artist’s catalog — find success on other platforms. “GOODMORNINGTOKYO!” has amassed more than 38 million Spotify streams and topped the platform’s viral songs charts. “THOT!” has more than 10 million Spotify streams and appears on dozens of popular playlists.
Tokyo’s Revenge has more than 50 million plays on his Spotify account and over 4.6 million monthly listeners.
The success of these two songs has gotten so massive that the industry is finally paying attention to the artist behind them. In the last month, Tokyo’s Revenge has been appearing in virtually every major hip-hop publication, as well as numerous music-related YouTube channels. Just last week, Tokyo’s Revenge and his producer, Clifford, did a Genius video breaking down the story behind “GOODMORNINGTOKYO!”
We’ve seen this kind of star-making success in the past with Ashnikko, Stunna Girl, and Blanco Brown. That said, the excitement around Tokyo’s Revenge feels different because he has multiple tracks going viral at once. Whether or not the young musician behind them can continue this trend of TikTok-ready creations remains to be seen, but with over 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, he’s already making enough money from music that he doesn’t need a day job. Aside from a record deal and RIAA certifications, what more could you ask for when you’ve barely released enough material to fill an album?
TikTok relies heavily on music to keep users happy, but should musicians be investing time and resources to promoting their work on the popular video-sharing app?
It’s easy to understand why the advertisers and record execs alike are fascinated by TikTok. With over 1.5 billion downloads worldwide and more than half a billion monthly users, TikTok has a diverse community of content creators that are changing the way people discover things online. Just look at the success of Lil Nas X, for example. The “Old Town Road” rapper first found viral popularity by placing his now-iconic breakout single on TikTok. Additionally, Blanco Brown, Stunna Girl, and Ashnikko all landed record deals because their music became popular on the app.
With TikTok turning unknown talents into internationally-recognized names in a matter of weeks, musicians everywhere are beginning to question whether or not the same could happen to them. After all, TikTok needs new music to keep its users inspired, so there is always a chance your song could be the next single that takes the platform by storm. It’s also possible that your song fails to find a following on the app and goes nowhere. The TikTok community is wild and unpredictable, which is what makes it so great, but that also means that anything is possible.
Before you invest hours of time and effort into developing a presence on TikTok or attempt promoting your music through the app, Music Biz host James Shotwell has some insight to share about the platform. From the revenue artists may or may not see to the difficulties people encounter when trying to leverage their success, having a hit song on TikTok may not be all that great for artists on the rise. Watch the video below for more information.
