Is the Music Industry Dancing to TikTok’s Tune?

By Music Editor Méabh Ní Chonaill

With over a billion monthly users, TikTok’s influence on pop culture and the music industry cannot be denied. Launched in 2016, the app has seen exponential growth in user numbers, particularly during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and has now emerged as one of the foremost tools with which artists promote themselves.

While there are both positives and negatives to the app, TikTok has forced the industry to alter its approach to music and marketing in a way that no other app has done in the last decade.

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Ltd, is now set to cause ructions as it takes on industry giants Spotify and Apple Music with the launch of its own music-streaming app, TikTok Music. Launched on 6 July, the app is currently unavailable in Ireland but will surely make its debut here within the next few months. With a student rate of $5.99 the app hopes to offer both social and musical services with a Shazam-like feature, comment sections and interactive playlists to boot.

As with most streaming platforms, there will likely be problems surrounding monetisation for artists. While exposure on the platform is significant, it does not translate into substantial revenue for musicians. The revenue generated from streaming is pitiful and this will surely be the case for this app. TikTok does not, however, pay by the stream or by the view. Instead, artists are paid in relation to the number of videos made with their music, making it even harder to generate income.

How has TikTok changed the music industry? TikTok is a tool for everyone to promote themselves and their music in creative ways, with little to no prior experience needed. This means that for the unsigned artist or band, TikTok is invaluable as they can reach a wide audience and even record companies without needing an agent to promote them, and without a large budget.

The app has launched the careers of many of this year’s chart-topping artists, such as Doja Cat, Lizzo and Lil Nas X who owe TikTok a great deal as the app kickstarted their careers. As stated by Ole Oberman, global head of music at TikTok. “Reflecting on 2022, it’s clear that artist success travels to our platforms, with 13 out of 14 Billboard Hot 100 number ones supported by viral trends on TikTok”.

Music companies have begun to adapt to the new challenges presented to them by TikTok, such as an oversaturated market, consumers’ ever-shortening attention spans, and the difficulties of promoting an artist in an appealing manner on the app. It is now a common occurrence for the artist themselves to make their own promotional material for upcoming projects. Artists can interact with fans through challenges, duets, and other creative means, fostering a strong sense of community and making the artist appear more “real”.

Companies will sometimes not even allow a track to be released until it gains enough traction on the app. It’s common to hear a clip from a song and then go in search of it, only to find another two or three videos promising the song’s imminent release. Artists often have to create a trend or a dance in order for the song to take off and go viral, in comparison to when music companies would fund billboard and media ads and use their connections to promote the song. Now all that’s needed to begin a trend is one video. A mere 30 seconds can land you a career or equally, if the TikTok does not sit right with the audience, it can lose you one.

Not alone does it affect marketing, it also influences the actual song. In pop music it’s easy to hear when a song has been created for TikTok from a certain phrase or soundbite that the artist clearly wants to go viral to create that traction now needed for pop artists to achieve success. Some argue that TikTok trends can lead to a certain homogenisation of music, where artists create tracks specifically designed to go viral on the platform, potentially sacrificing originality and creativity in the process.

This app is affecting the ways in which music is made, the audience to whom it is marketed and how that is done, and you can bet your bottom dollar that TikTok Music and ByteDance have no ambitions of stopping there.