Three years and four months after rocking the music scene with ‘El mal Quiero’ on March 18 Rosalia presented his creative metamorphosis ‘Motomami’. However, he did this with a performance from a stage, much less television, but in a vertical format, like that of the screen of his account. TikTok. This short anecdote serves to illustrate something that is a trend, not an anomaly: trendy artists themselves social network Fashion. This is transforming the industry. music.
Music, like other art disciplines, platforms In an increasingly digital world Spotify changed the way songs are produced, TikTok opened a huge window of recipes and sales. Social network with more than 1,000 million monthly active users worldwide, mostly teenagers videos became such a great musical catalyst that record labels and artists they failed to look the other way and began to seduce those people. Last year, 430 songs surpassed the one billion views on the platform as audio, three times more than in 2020. Because of this, hitting it on TikTok has become synonymous with being on the top-streamed songs list.
from ‘lip sync’ choreographiesMusic has left its mark on TikTok’s short and dazzling history from day one. Unlike other platforms, Chinese owned social phenomenon ByteDance use algorithm This exponentially multiplies the content that manages to keep users hooked the longest, something that rewards its creator for originality, not popularity. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have followers, if the content is good, it can be successful,” he explains. Paul HouricanTikTok Europe and UK Music Director.
This formula revived old songs like ‘Dreams’ as well as spawning new stars. Fleetwood Mac. October 2020 saw the historic rock band see one of their greatest works hit the top 100 for the first time since its release in 1977, 43 years ago. The revival of the song, which reached 8.47 million views in one week on Spotify, did not respond to an elaborate marketing strategy. marketing released by a record label, but to the originality of Nathan Apodaca, a warehouse worker from Idaho who decided to record his skating and juice drinking with the background melody. His 23-second video became a global phenomenon on TikTok, garnering 494 million views in just two weeks.
TikTok has established itself as: commercial window. According to a study done by the company itself, 80% of its users use it to discover new songs. This musical interest has attracted artists and labels who use the ‘app” tremendous reach and the closeness and interaction it provides with fans to create trends and build community. duet with Pablo Alboran to the live presentation of the new album Justin bieber. This allows them to drag their fans to physical concerts or streaming platforms like Spotify, where their main economic business is. The same report shows that 67% of users are likely to search for songs they discovered on these platforms.
TikTok, besides being a tool for making money, is also an art lab, an incubator for popular topics. ‘Old Town Road’ theme, Lil Nas X is a paradigmatic precursor to this strategy. In 2018, the rapper released a video dancing to the song that went viral and inspired a choreography that was repeated by thousands of users around the world. The song topped the Most Streamed Songs chart for 17 weeks in a row. Lil Nas X signed a contract with Columbia Records, won two Grammys and became a world star.
From ‘Blind Lights’ Weekend by ‘Time about them’ lizzoThe use of choreographic challenges served to involve artists in the promotion of songs enough to make them responsible for some of their success. By creating and reproducing content, followers act like pollen bees multiplying the reach of their favorite artists. “The power of TikTok is that our community is actively interacting with songs or sounds, creating and sharing their own content,” Hourican adds.
Aware of this, record companies polished their strategy. There are those who are like singers Jason Deruloused and remixed sounds already popular on TikTok to launch successful music products. Others simply share parts of their songs on the platform before they’re released to create anticipation and make fans responsible for popularizing it. Rosalía did it with ‘Hentai’ or rapper Jack HarlowHis popularity on TikTok has allowed his songs to climb the most streamed charts. There are even labels that pay to boost the viral videos of fans talking about portfolio artists. “The music industry is getting more reactive from an active business, with some of the promotional campaign being handed over to fans who were formerly responsible for what creative directors did,” explains TikTok strategy consultant Miquel Castany.
This successful strategy, which has turned into a promotional imperative, increases tensions between the creators of the advertising world. halay, Charlie XCX, Florence and the Machine anyone FKA BranchesPeople who recently shared videos complaining that record companies are forcing them to be more present on the platform. However, few have seen a new emotional maneuver in this protest to strengthen its content.