MUSIC BUSINESS
How to Blow Up your Music on TikTok: Part 1 of 2
O
ne of the producers/ artists we work with has over 150 million streams on Spotify. I tell you this not to brag, but to give you insight into how they got there.
Was it the music marketing on FB/IG advertising? Nope. Not a dime. Was it the branding around a hot new release? Nope, the album was released years ago. OK, pencils down. It was TikTok (mostly). But, how?
8 JUNE/JULY 2021 PERFORMER MAGAZINE
You probably know TikTok as the short form video app filled with thirst traps, bikini bounces, beard worship, kinks, cosplay, and now, the generational wars. (Side note: GenX still doesn’t care about your jeans or hair, and Cheugy is just fine with us, we’ve been called worse). But for all of that video-centric content, the secret is - TikTok runs on audio. Spoken audio, recordings, and last but not least, song clips. Notice the difference, not songs, but “clips.” Whether it’s a viral dance to a hit, a challenge, or a remixed mashup, or that insane, “Oh no, oh no, oh no no no no no,” there is normally music
involved. This is not meant to be a user guide for TikTok. I’m going to assume you’ve wiped your eyes and looked up after blowing two hours scrolling through your feed laughing. But here are some tips for how to use it as a music maker. Here are some facts to consider. In 2020, over 70 artists were signed to major label deals directly from their TikTok. And these aren’t all young rappers, either. Someone we work with in his late twenties got a distribution deal for back catalog and a 1+ 1 from a major.
