The internet has changed since the birth of TikTok- it has never been so easy to go viral. If the content is genuinely good/funny, it organically blows up without any promotion. The COVID pandemic has made the app even more popular, as people in quarantine and countries in lockdown can’t go out, hence technology is their main source of fun. Hence, now is the best time to become viral.
There is another just as interesting feature on TikTok- their licensed music library. There’s 2 sides to this feature- first off, artists earn royalties every time their music is used in someone’s video. And secondly, if someone famous uses a certain song in their video (e.g. making it into a meme) the song blows up. This is why we suddenly have many new popular artists on the market. TikTok has lowered the threshold for entering the music scene.
Let’s get into some stats- TikTok has over a billion monthly users, and the most popular genre on the app is hip-hop. Even though hip-hop still reigns supreme, tons of musicians from other genres can be found too. 90 of the Billboard top 100 songs last year came from TikTok. This proves much of an impact the app has on the development of the music scene. Songs like “Say So” by Doja Cat were used in 22 million videos- that is a huge number. Based on different statistics found online, one can conclude that the most popular songs on TikTok are the ones that are “memeable”- meaning they are funny in a way and can be used to enhance humorous videos (either funny lyrics or sounds). One example of this is the song Conkarah – Banana, which has been used in about 30 million TikTok videos.
There are different so-called “subcultures” on the app. In this article, I will list the ones related to music. The most significant I’ve seen are producer challenges, vocal covers and SynthTok. There are 2 ways to skyrocket as a musician on TikTok – through royalties (as i already mentioned before) and also through becoming a viral TikToker. Many small artists are experimenting with their videos, in hopes they will hit it big.
According to Fader, TikTok released its “Year In Music” report, and the summary claims that over 70 artists who found success on the platform in 2020 all secured deals with major record labels.
Here are some examples of the different types of videos from music producers. As seen from the example, the range of videos topics is quite wide (from synthesis, to covers and live performances):
This video by music producer Dominique is my current personal favorite, because of how empowering it is:
Resources:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexgurley/top-tiktok-songs-2020
https://www.thefader.com/2020/12/17/70-artists-tiktok-major-record-deal-2020
