Just as consuming music has evolved from records, cassettes, CDs, MP3 downloads, to streaming services, TikTok is undeniably changing the way people interact and consume music once more.
If you have not been keeping up with the latest trends, TikTok is an app where anyone can create an account and upload vertical videos of themselves doing virtually anything that complies with the app’s user guidelines. While Generation Z and younger Millennials dominate the app, people of all age groups interact on the app as well.
The app was formerly known as Musical.ly, where vertical videos of people mainly lip-syncing and dancing to music circulated. Musical.ly was bought by ByteDance in 2018, a tech company based in Beijing, and was renamed and rebranded as what we know today as TikTok.
As both a TikTok addict and music lover, I have been noticing a lot of musicians self-advertising their music on the platform, urging people to interact with their videos, stream their music on different platforms, and so on, to reach a broader audience. But how effective is this system?
The fact is, TikTok already has multiple success stories up its sleeves. Musical artists like Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, and Bella Poarch have gained massive cult followings from their songs going viral on the app.
Other musicians are trying to do the same by promoting their own music in the background of their videos, asking others to duet them, use and save the sound, and share with their friends.
A great example of this self-promotion technique is when UK rapper Dréya Mac posted a dance to her and FelixThe1st’s song “Own Brand (Baddie).” She posted the dance on October 31, 2021, and it quickly went viral, helping her gain over 1.4 million followers on TikTok.
But what’s challenging about using TikTok to boost music is the unpredictability of what and when something might go viral. This all depends on the app’s algorithm.
The algorithm chooses videos to put on users’ feeds by looking at past videos they have interacted with. Interacting with a video by liking, commenting, sharing, and going on the user’s profile tells the TikTok algorithm that these people are interested in whatever they are watching—making the user who posted it more likely to come back onto their feed.
This is why musicians are straight-out telling people to interact with their videos! The more people who interact with their videos, the more likely their same videos will appear on other people’s feeds who have similar interests. Once that snowball effect gets going, that’s when videos and sounds go viral.
But hearing numerous small musicians constantly asking users to interact with their videos gets kind of boring. People on TikTok are searching for something more than just new music to listen to; they are searching for personalities.
Music consumers want to know the people behind the music, looking for people to relate to. And the best way I have been seeing lately that seems to get people’s attention is by creators being honest with their viewers.
Whether creators think they are not able to keep up with the ever-changing TikTok trends like @thebeachesband, or they overshare about themselves—TikTok users want to watch people be their “authentic” selves.
Doja Cat is a great example of this. Fans are always commenting on how genuine she is in her videos. On one of her videos posted on October 30, 2021, TikTok user @alv_theow commented “Sometimes I forget ur an actual celebrity” and has gotten over 181K likes. Comments like these are found all over the comment sections on Doja Cat’s TikTok account.
She made a response video on Feb 15, 2022, addressing these types of comments. She asked jokingly if she was doing her job wrong for being so “unapologetically her” that people forget she’s a celebrity. Fans loved her response to this, but I especially liked @hankgreen1’s lengthy explanation in her comment section on what’s going on:
“The general strategy is to cultivate two or three really strong positive attributes and then lean into only that all of the time. The result is that people end up imagining the celebrity as both more than and less than a person… an object that contains a brand. It’s both a PR strategy and a psychic safety thing. It can be very overwhelming to have a LOT of people feel like they really deeply know you.”
At the end of the day, fans only see what creators put out for them. In order for rising musicians to get their followings and get those viewers, they need to put out a “brand” for themselves—more like a personality—they can manage online to accompany their music.
TikTok users are not coming to the app to listen to music, they have dedicated streaming services to do that for them. People want to be entertained—so when musicians creatively pair their music with entertainment, the more likely they are to get recognized.
Music, art writer
