How Is Tiktok Changing The Music Industry?

Article TikTok recently had its 8th birthday. The Chinese app has had an undeniable influence worldwide. With its short-form content curated for each user on the app, the platform has since integrated itself into aspects of people's everyday lives. With 1.6 billion monthly users it remains one of the most engaging social networks. But how has it affected the music we listen to? TikTok’s “for you page” function pushes content based on user interaction. Naturally, if you interact with music content of a certain genre, you're more likely to see related videos which allows smaller artists to gain some visibility.

Gone are the days of chart-topping music being produced in lavish studios. Today's hits are produced in bedrooms. TikTok has drastically lowered the barriers to entry for people to showcase their music, anyone can make an account and use their own sound snippet. American Singer Sabrina Carpenter gained 14 million followers in 14 days in September of this year. Her song Espresso reached the number 1 position in the charts less than a month after its initial release. The sound snippet of the song has been used in 1.3 million different videos.

More locally, Croydon-based artist Pozer posted a string of TikTok freestyles last year. The verse used picked up traction quickly and soon after became “Kitchen Stove” which racked up 4 million views on YouTube, 28 million streams on Spotify, and hit 22 in the UK charts all in 7 months. The South London rapper blends raw gritty UK drill lyrics and cadence with upbeat Jersey Club beats that grab TikTok users' attention straight away. The sound snippet of Kitchen Stove has been used nearly ten thousand times on different videos from other users that have racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, comments, and shares. Since then, he hasn't slowed down releasing 3 more singles in “I'm Tryna” “Malicious Intentions” and “Puppies”.

TikTok also has seemed to disrupt the timeline of music that we are used to. Decades-old songs are being revived by viral trends and challenges. New Jersey-based indie rock group Pinegrove released “Need 2” in 2014 a song that by no means screams viral trend. In June of last year, the sound was used once by a user dancing to the Midwest-Emo track which currently sits on 1.5 million likes and 13 million views. The dance turned into a trend and gained so much popularity that the band re-released the song as a standalone EP.

The use of music labels as an intermediary is decreasing because of TikTok. The app allows music creators to access direct fan engagement. Traditionally labels were crucial for distribution. TikTok provides a platform where artists can instantly share their music, test out new ideas, and go viral through organic user-generated content. Due to this, labels are increasingly using TikTok as a means of scouting viral potential through the metrics that TikTok provides.

Unfortunately, the nature of short-form content creates some negative consequences for certain groups of artists. TikTok users undoubtedly have an attention span issue. The endless quantity of 10-second, videos means that from a music perspective, there's an exceedingly small window for artists to grab the user's attention. Because of this it could be argued that more lyrically complex songs aren't benefiting from the app as they do not immediately grab the user's attention. Because of the constant emergence of new artists, we also see far more “one-hit wonders”, viral trends don't tend to last more than a few weeks meaning an artist may not even be able to generate any revenue from their popularity before they are tossed to the sidelines to make room for another trend, and the cycle continues.

To conclude TikTok has created a significant disruption in the way the music industry operates in a small period. From the way music is initially found, to the way labels scout new talent. The app has produced some of the stars of today, however amid licensing disagreements from leading corporations such as Universal Music Group that meant songs from artists such as Drake and Taylor Swift were removed from the app, the future of music and TikTok doesn't seem as optimistic as it does at first glance.