MUSIC CATALOGUES

Old hits are enjoying new success, but it’s the public that decides

Ever since the idea of remastering and repackaging iconic recordings became the norm, acts and their catalogues have enjoyed longer careers than they might ever have dared to imagine. And now, as Gary Smith reports, the digital world is adding a whole new layer of relevance for the millennial audience

THERE can be no denying that TikTok has breathed new life into old tracks, showing that great songs are truly timeless and that a good beat can transcend generations. “Our community surprises us every day with the content they create and the tracks they unearth,” Midem keynoter and global head of Music at TikTok, Ole Obermann, says. “One recent example is Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra, which this month has gone viral for a second time on TikTok. This 1970s catalogue pop hit is being used to re-enact different stages of a relationship — from the early honeymoon phase to the later years where couples have a different kind of intimacy. Over 600,000 TikTok videos have been created using this track, and it has been a great to see it getting used as part of a trend that’s entertaining our community.” The revival of another 70s classic, Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, is the perfect example of where a TikTok creator uses a timeless song as the soundtrack for a video that went viral. “In just a matter of days, Dreams was back in the charts and getting millions of streams — over 40 years after its initial release,” Obermann says. “What really mattered though, was that the band leaned-in to our platform and started to jump on the viral trend. We know from experience that when artists do that, they really succeed on TikTok and bring even more value and awareness to songs long after they’ve reached their peak in the charts.” If, however, you want to try and predict what’ll be the next Dreams, forget it: “TikTok is inherently unpredictable. There isn’t a magic formula to what goes viral — it really could be anyone and anything, from an afro-beat track to a synth-pop floor-filler. In the past year, we’ve seen tracks from George Michael, Van McCoy, Soft Cell and The Mamas & The Papas all form part of viral trends on TikTok. All of these differing sounds show that any song can gain traction on our platform.” According to Justin Shukat, president and co-founder at Primary Wave Music Publishing, social media is a massive driver of consumption: “It’s partly the ease of access,” he says. “For example, the combination of YouTube and the use of music in gaming is pushing music — both catalogue and contemporary — to kids much more than radio, even though radio is still capable of breaking hits. And the Dreams phenomenon, mentioned by Ole, is very powerful, mainly because it made the media much more aware of the huge market for heritage tracks.” It has, it seems, also woken up the music industry: “Traditionally the music business has paid little attention to catalogue; it was regarded as the thing that paid the utility bills,” Shukat says. “But in the last two years, many of the major music business stories have been about big-money catalogue deals and that reveals a lot about the true value of catalogue tracks. Fletcher’s Girls Girls Girls is a great example of taking the hooks and melodies from an old track — in this case I Kissed A Girl written by Max Martin and Katy Perry — then adding Fletcher’s lyrics to make a modern-day hit tune.” n

Primary Wave Music Publishing’s Justin Shukat TikTok’s Ole Obermann