I am an avid music listener. I am always searching for new music to add to my endless collection of Spotify playlists, but in the past couple of years, I have noticed that I discover a lot of new music on Tik Tok. It’s not new that social media is a useful channel for promoting new music, but what is new is the use of quick clips to promote only the catchiest couple of lines of new songs. New trends fly in and out using song clips, and songs go viral just from a short 15 second video. Small songwriters are reaching wider audiences and are able to gain enough attention that they can release songs of their own, and already established artists are having their music used as background tracking for the biggest trends on the app.
Before we get into how this is affecting the music industry as a whole, I want to highlight a few notable examples of songs that blew up from Tik Tok, both by established artists and emerging artists.
| Established Artists: | Emerging Artists: |
| “About Damn Time” by Lizzo | “Touch Tank” by Quinnie |
| “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan | “Complex” by Katie Gregson-MacLead |
| “Say So” by Doja Cat | “ABCDEFU” by Gayle |
| “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X | “Supalonely” by Benee |
These are some examples of established artists who have already released top hits that gained even more traction and recognition through Tik Tok, then we have smaller artists who blew up on Tik Tok and were able to start producing music on a bigger scale because of it. Not mentioned above are the many songs that resurfaced and topped charts for the first time in many years because of Tik Tok trends and videos. One of the most notable examples of this is Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, which went viral on Tik Tok in 2020 after a man was seen drinking cranberry juice while riding a skateboard and listening to the song. The video now has 13.6 million likes and Dreams resurfaced onto the charts for the first time since 1977.
It is obvious that Tik Tok has influence in the music industry, there are tons of articles detailing the numbers and the facts behind it, and I will link a couple at the end. But for today, I want to specifically talk about my observations on how it is changing the way people consume music and how it is giving smaller artists an opportunity to ‘make it big.’
Attention Span
These quick reel media sites have altered this generation’s attention spans. Gen Z has been found to have an average of an 8 second attention span– yes, 8 seconds. Because of this, Gen Z also consumes large amounts of media at a time, and the creation of short-form media has aided marketers in a way that promotes products or brands in mass to consumers. It has upsides and downfalls, one being the fact that even though they are consuming more media in one sitting, chronic scrolling could be harmful because if the user isn’t immediately interested, they will move on without giving it more time.
For the artists, this means it is make or break when using social media to market your music. The virality of a song plays a big role in whether or not it will be successful, but it is important to note that even whether it is a new artist or a popular one, virality is a big factor in song success. Sometimes, you can control these things by using paid marketing and using influencers to your advantage, but sometimes, songs go viral because one person heard it, liked it, and decided to use it in their video. There are many different reasons songs go viral, maybe it is because of the lyrical meaning, or it is the danceability, and maybe it is simply the fact that it is a well known artist with a big following. Regardless of the why, it is important to know your audience and cater to it when choosing what parts of the song to post, what behind-the-scenes clips, and any content related to the artist or music.
The Honeymoon Phase of a Song
There are many times that I would see a song go viral on Tik Tok, typically a written song by a smaller artist trying to promote music before it is released, and people will beg and plead for them to release a full version. Once the full version does get released, on some occasions, people will be disappointed with the full song. This raises many questions, was the consumer enjoying the song only because it was trendy to do so? Did they not like it because they just didn’t enjoy that type of music? Was the rest of the song actually not up to par? I like to compare this to the honeymoon phase of a relationship. They are enthralled in the beginning, then once it gets down to it and they hear everything, do they actually like this song?
When given one incredible clip of a song, sometimes the ‘hype’ of a trend can build it up in a consumer’s mind, so when they listen to the full version, they are disappointed no matter how good of a song it truly is. Think about how many times you were so excited for a particular event and then, when you actually attended, it just wasn’t as fun as you thought it would be. The same thing happens with music, especially since the consumer has been exposed to a portion of the song already.
Unfortunately, there isn’t too much you can do to combat this other than ensuring to tease different parts of the song before it is released. It all has to do with consumer perception of the song and their expectations. The main thing you can do is work to market it to the proper audience in hopes that they will enjoy the full song because it is your target demographic.
Balancing Timelines
Another thing that is important, mainly with smaller artists promoting music, is to know how long your audience is willing to wait for new music. Obviously, an artist’s timeline should be their own, but when it comes to promoting music on a quick media platform like Tik Tok, the time in between promotion and release is crucial. I have seen too often a song get more popular and gain traction, then the artist announces that the song won’t come out for another two months. For bigger artists like Lizzo, Taylor Swift, and Harry Styles, this can work by generating buzz and building anticipation, but for smaller, lesser known artists, this can simply cause the excitement to die.
Their audience’s attention span is small, and it is hard to stay relevant as an emerging artist with few songs released. If you wait too long, people will forget and all of the good media you have earned will go away. There is always an option to release a demo version of a song to capitalize on the excitement while you have it, but that also has the potential to harm the release of the finished studio recorded track. Artists need to assess these things and determine what they think is the most important to them, then plan accordingly. It may take a while to gain popularity on social media, so do they start marketing early and risk losing the excitement early on, or do they start marketing later and risk losing the anticipation factor? There are downsides and upsides to both, so ultimately, you have to weigh what you think is most important to you.
In Conclusion?
Overall, I think the music market is becoming increasingly over-saturated due to the rise of these quick video platforms, but when it comes to music, isn’t that what we want? People are listening to more songs than ever and discovering new artists seemingly every single day thanks to platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram reels. It can be an extremely valuable tool to artists and music promoters if they know how to use it to their advantage. I’m not necessarily sure that there is a right way or a wrong way to do things, but these were just some of my personal thoughts and insights on questions to ask when navigating the ever-growing short form media world as it pertains to music.