TikTok has become so popular and renowned for its short and authentic videos and has become a cultural phenomenon globally. With almost two billion active audiences on TikTok, we can safely say that it is the most popular form of entertainment. More than that, TikTok is popular for turning unknown songs into global hits that are at the top of the music industry.
When it comes to music discovery, aspiring independent music artists must pay attention to this platform. The best part is that TikTok algorithms, unlike other social platforms, don’t rely on followers but on quality content. In other words, your content will trend if the algorithms decide that it is valuable and meets the platform’s users’ needs.
Plus, you will witness greater success on platforms like TikTok if you can collaborate with creators and engage fans. Let’s evaluate the relationship between TikTok and music publishing and learn how to maximize trends for a successful music career.
It is no secret that TikTok is part of the most successful social media platforms so different from others. The platform was created in 2017, and by 2018, over 55% of active users had been watching and uploading videos. For example, the percentage of people who upload videos to YouTube is a fraction of its user base. TikTok adopts a many-to-many schema, as opposed to YouTube’s traditional one-to-many communication schema.
Therefore, on TikTok, everyone is a creator, and everyone is an audience, and this truth is the key to its success. But how did TikTok achieve such success that other platforms couldn’t? Well, first, it removed all traction on all sides of the system, featuring ByteDance that ensured users could easily create content.
As far as demand is concerned, the TikTok video feed is designed to hold all user-generated content so that it filters content. That is, users can skip videos they don’t want to watch, which algorithms pick up and act up. Users cannot, however, decide what they watch; the algorithm instead gets to know you through the content you watch. Therefore, artists and music professionals can leverage the platform and create music that becomes part of the global hits.
Considering the participation rate on the platform, TikTok deals with huge amounts of content that pre-existing platforms didn’t have to deal with. Meanwhile, as far as its user-generated content is concerned, TikTok wants every video to have a chance. However, although a video may get more views on TikTok if posted by someone with a large following, it doesn’t always work that way. Follower count or the account’s high-performing videos are not factors in the platform’s recommendation system.
TikTok’s recommendation engine brings interesting content regardless of the creator’s audience. TikTok shows an uploaded video to a small sample of viewers to test it, considering metrics like comments, shares, completion ratio, and likes. If the video does well among the selected users, TikTok’s algorithm will show it to a wider audience, and the cycle is repeated. With this method, even a video uploaded by a regular no-follower-base user can get millions of views on the platform.
Therefore, to gain favor with the TikTok algorithm, focus on releasing engaging content that resonates with your audience. Understand the platform’s key features, add your own creative twist, and you’ll get connected to billions of listeners.
The first step to making it big on TikTok is creating a solid profile. However, ensuring your TikTok account is more than a mere representation of who you are is vital. It ultimately determines how followers discover your music and how you can successfully promote your music on TikTok. Thus, here is a guide to help you set up a strong TikTok profile for musical artists:
TikTok features tools that artists and creators can use to enhance their videos and grow their audience. For example, the platform’s editing features let you make creative cuts and effects to help your original sounds make a greater impact. In addition, utilize TikTok clips by uploading your original sounds with high-quality audio to make it stand out. The clearer your sounds are, the easier your audience can hear your beats without straining their ears.
Furthermore, the visuals and captions on TikTok should be used to determine the best time to post creative visuals and engaging captions. Meanwhile, tapping into the latest TikTok hashtags and trends by TikTok users helps to improve your visibility, ensuring more users see your content in their feeds.
Participating or starting a TikTok challenge brings you on the radar of other artists and users based on analytics. Also, try giving your content an emotional edge by implementing personal content about our music journey; users relate more with honesty.
If you want TikTok to share your music, you need to learn to use the platform purposefully. That means every type of content you post on the platform should be geared towards promoting your music. Promoting great songs on TikTok content is all about knowing how to maximize the power of music marketing strategy. With that said, here are some best practices to help your song go viral on TikTok and promote your brand.
Branding is crucial as a music artist, and that takes time, effort, and, more importantly, a good understanding of your identity. Therefore, if you’re looking to grow your TikTok presence, choose your music niche and stick with it, being consistent with your style and message.
To help your TikTok music reach a wider audience, you need to utilize trending hashtags relevant to your music. Using hashtags in your music videos will ensure they appear in search results when someone searches for a particular hashtag.
Invest in music distribution on TikTok, but let your distributor first see if TikTok creators can use the song. Furthermore, initiate or engage in TikTok challenges, and ensure the challenge is easy to understand, memorable, and engaging – if you’re initiating it.
TikTok has policies such as copyright and legal guidelines for content creators, and violating them can get creators banned. Therefore, ensure you familiarize yourself with these policies to avoid getting banned and also protect your creative output.
As the competitive nature of TikTok trends and challenges is growing, you want to ensure your music fits the criteria. The first step is to create great music or catchy moments, and then follow these tips to get your music trending.
If you want to use TikTok marketing for your music, then spend time on the platform yourself. Do your homework and find out which content is popular and why; this will help with your popular TikTok campaign later on.
More than participating in TikTok challenges, you can be the creative behind a challenge. To do that, you need to brainstorm ideas, focusing on what viewers will get out of it. Also, the challenge must be memorable, engaging, encourage rewatchability, and have something in it for creators. You also want other creators to be able to expand on it, and it should be easy to recreate, interpret, and modify.
Collaborations with other musicians and creators on TikTok expose your music to new audiences and promote your challenge and hashtags. Therefore, look for influencers with good affinity with your target audience, which means you must understand where your TikTok audience is.
TikTok offers song artists and music producers a unique stage to put out their music, amplify their online presence, and reach a global audience. The platform effectively pushes new content to attract international attention, making it the perfect choice for new artists. Therefore, take time to tailor your content to engage a base of users, and your music will witness great success.
How useful is the TikTok business for musicians?
TikTok is one tool musicians should not take for granted, as it lets them showcase their work to a broad audience. If you’re new to TikTok, maximize the platform’s unique algorithm and create music that users love and want to engage with.
How can you get famous and go viral on TikTok as a musician?
You can boost your visibility and do well on TikTok by creating music with which users can resonate. Also, create unique, engaging musical challenges, engage your audience, post quality content, and be consistent with the quality level.
How long do TikTok trends and challenges last?
Popular trends and challenges come and go, no matter how viral they get; they’re not meant to last forever. Therefore, ensure you use that window of opportunity to convert the awareness they brought to your music into something long-lasting and meaningful.
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