PC: Daniel Constante/Shutterstock
In recent years, TikTok, meant for short-length videos, has given a new opportunity for musicians looking to go big in the music scene. It also shines a light on older music and songs that were not as recognized in their day, or had started to fade from relevance, but shot to popularity because of TikTok.
In a report by “Vox” and “The Pudding”, they found that over 125 artists had their “big break” on the platform, which for most of them did not end there. Out of the 125 artists that “Vox” and “The Pudding” had found that had their “big break” on TikTok, 105 of them had their music added to editorial playlists. These consist of playlists such as “New Music Friday” on Spotify and “New Fire” on Apple Music. These playlists have millions of listeners which can give these emerging artists a place next to industry giants, as well as give them even more exposure to listeners. They also receive a higher chance that people will add their music to their own playlists; where they will get streamed over and over again. Examples of artists that came to prominence this way are 24kGoldn, Jvke, Tai Verdes, and many more.
Connor Price (PC: Piyush Singh/socialketchup)
Artists have taken advantage of this and launched their own music careers off of this method while helping other artists top charts. Artist/TikTok Creator Connor Price has started a series called “Spin the Globe” in which he collaborates with different artists across the globe on tracks that he produces. So far he has worked up in coming artists from Zambia, the Netherlands, India, Japan, and South Africa. From the 5 tracks that he has worked on with these artists, Connor Price has racked up 27,440,146 streams on Spotify at the time of writing, 13,000,000 of those have come from one track alone.
Of the same 125 artists that “Vox” and “The Pudding” found that blew up because of TikTok, 46% of them went on to sign with a major record label, with the remaining 64% staying independent. Record labels can help artists’ music land on radio stations and editorial playlists, but it comes at a cost. Most record labels give out what is called an “advance”, essentially a glorified loan that labels give to artists that help to kick start their careers, which artists have to pay back over an amount of time that the label chooses. In return for these services, labels take 50% to 90% of an artist’s earnings. But since the rise of artists breaking out into the mainstream because of TikTok, not all emerging artists have chosen to sign with a label because they are already getting enough attention from TikTok to get on people’s playlists and radios. In turn, it’s now bringing up a debate on whether record labels are needed as much in this modern world of music, and how labels should adapt to fit it or fade into obscurity.
“A Man Without Love” album cover (PC: Decca/Spotify)
TikTok has also brought songs that have faded out of most people’s playlists and radio and brought them back to popularity. As in the case of the song, “A Man Without Love” by Engelbert Humperdinck. After its appearance on the first episode of the hit Disney+ Marvel television series “Moon Knight”, the song had tens of thousands of videos made with it on the platform. People had found ways to use the song in trends that were already on the way up in relevance, and creating new ones utilizing the song. Since this boom in popularity, the song has found its way into popular music again and into the mainstream once more, hitting No. 1 on the “Top TV Songs” chart. As Engelbert Humperdinck (the singer/songwriter of “A Man Without Love”) said in an interview with Billboard, “To this that all these years later it [“A Man Without Love’’] would come back into my life and cause a big stir, it’s amazing.” Many other songs have come back into relevance after a low period of listening in this way due to TikTok. These songs include “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” by Kate Bush (re-discovered from the Netflix Series “Stranger Things”), “Something in the Way” by Nirvana (re-discovered from Warner Bros. Discovery’s “The Batman”(2022)) and “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps (re-discovered from the Netflix Series “Wednesday”).
Overall, TikTok has shaken up the music industry in more ways than one—From bringing long-lost music back to the top of the charts to bringing up questions on the purpose of record labels. So if you want to get started in music and want to be the next big thing, maybe post a few videos on TikTok.
Bibliography
Lynch, Joe. 2022. “Engelbert Humperdinck Talks TikTok, ‘Moon Knight’ Synch and the One Thing His Pal Elvis Stole From Him.” Billboard (blog). August 26, 2022. https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/engelbert-humperdinck-moon-knight-tiktok-interview-1235131407/.
Pudding, The. n.d. “The Unlikely Odds of Making It Big on TikTok.” The Pudding. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://pudding.cool/2022/07/tiktok-story.
Vox, dir. 2022. We Tracked What Happens after TikTok Songs Go Viral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1m-KgEpoow.
“Music Royalties Explained: The Ultimate Guide for 2022.” n.d. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://www.indiemusicacademy.com/blog/music-royalties-explained
