How Has Tiktok Impacted the Music Industry?

TikTok has had a significant impact on the music industry in recent years. The social media platform, which has over 2 billion downloads and 800 million active users globally, has become a dominant force in music consumption and promotion. The majority of TikTok's users are between the ages of 16 and 24, making it a key platform for marketing music to the demographic that streams the most. This has resulted in artists having more control over the promotion of their singles and has allowed them to use TikTok as a reliable source for marketing.

However, this trend has also put pressure on artists to have a strong social media presence, as the expectation of record labels is to have a successful TikTok marketing campaign in order to increase the chances of a song going viral. This has led to some frustration for artists, who feel the focus has shifted from simply creating music to social media presence. As reported by the New York Times, artists are upset with record labels constantly seeking the next viral hit like "Old Town Road" or "Drivers License", which rose to popularity on TikTok and topped the Billboard charts. FKA twigs expressed their frustration in a now-deleted TikTok post, stating "all record labels want are TikToks."

Nevertheless, it's hard to deny TikTok's impact on the music industry when we look at the numbers, as songs that trend on the app often end up charting on the Billboard 100 or Spotify Viral 50. A November study conducted for TikTok by the music analytics company MRC Data found that 67% of the app's users are more likely to seek out songs on music-streaming services after hearing them on TikTok.

TikTok has become a hub of musical creativity, with songs being remixed, slowed down, sped up, layered with a clap track, or mashed up with another track to create new versions of the original. This trend has created an opportunity for record labels and marketers to collaborate with remixes and mashup artists as part of their song release strategies on the app. "A song can have an entirely different sentiment, application, audience, everything when it is remixed, which really just provides it an entirely new life," explains Jacquelyn Schwartz, music partnerships director at Creed Media, a marketing agency. "Back in the day, you'd go get a bunch of club DJs to remix your records so that you could appeal to different music markets like drum-and-bass, techno, and underground music," says Nima Nasseri, the A&R lead for UMG's music strategy and tactics team. "The goal is to get your record discovered in spaces that it normally wouldn't be discovered in."

Record labels are taking advantage of TikTok's popularity by dedicating teams to monitor the app, ready to help boost a trending song when it starts to gain momentum. The growth of music marketing on TikTok has been significant and influential in bringing artists into the spotlight over the past couple of years. "Music marketing on TikTok is huge," states Jesse Callahan, founder of Montford Agency, an upstart marketing firm. "It's a big way that labels have brought artists into the spotlight, and also a big way that creators have made a lot of money." The trend is not just limited to new releases and back catalog tracks, but also includes remixes and mashups of existing songs, giving them a new lease of life on the app.

This was exemplified by the 25-year-old classic hit "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" by Celine Dion, which became popular again on TikTok and broke one-day streaming records on Spotify and YouTube. Another example is Sia's "Snowman," which was released in 2017 but only gained viral popularity on TikTok in 2020 when people participated in a challenge to sing the entire chorus in one breath. These examples show how TikTok can breathe new life into older songs and bring them back into the public consciousness.

The popularity of TikTok has not only provided a new platform for music promotion but has also given artists and marketers the opportunity to reach a wider audience through creative musical content. The app has become an important tool for record labels to showcase their artists and expand their reach, providing a powerful platform for musical discovery and growth. The rise of TikTok has caused a buzz in the music industry, with the term "user-generated content" (UGC) becoming increasingly popular. Nina Webb, the head of marketing at Atlantic Records, has seen the change in the industry first-hand. She recalls that in the early days of her career, marketing in the music industry was simpler. There were only two platforms, video, and radio, and the key was to have money and influence as a record label. However, now the situation has become much more complex, with TikTok as the one platform that can make a significant impact. Webb cites the example of Atlantic Records artist Gayle, who released a song called "ABCDEFU" last August. Despite their marketing efforts on TikTok, the song did not become a hit until months later, when the sign language community on the app discovered it during Gayle's tour. The user-generated content created around the song had a massive impact, propelling it to the top of the Billboard Global 200 chart for 11 weeks.

These days, a new industry has emerged dedicated to marketing songs and artists on TikTok, with influencers being paid to promote songs, short clips being posted to gauge audience reactions, and dance challenges being created. With over 1 billion monthly active users on the app, it's easy to understand why this is the case. However, according to Webb, the most effective marketing strategies on TikTok are the ones that happen organically, rather than the result of expensive campaigns. This is because the target audience, Generation Z, is highly attuned to inauthentic marketing efforts and can easily detect them.

Tatiana Cirisano, a music industry analyst, says that the traditional formula of record labels discovering and developing new talent has been disrupted by the emergence of TikTok. Cirisano believes that audiences now have more control over what they listen to, and the music industry is responding to their choices. After spending a lot of time on Tiktok it's hard to deny the truth behind that statement. There are hundreds if not thousands of creators on the app trying to push their playlists or being the first to put their audience on to an artist. You have formats ranging from, would I buy this artist's stock? To, if you like this — then you’ll love this! Then on top of those creators that are even more artists posting behind the scenes of their creative process, or doing a day in the life, or playing snippets with clickbaity titles like “made this in 5 minutes should I drop??” All in all, I feel for the artists that are being pressured to balance social media on top of their already chaotic lives but if someone is passionate about social media, it’s an amazing tool. It’s especially huge for independent artists. Tiktok has provided anybody with the agency to push their own music without the machine of a record label behind them and you just love to see that.