alternativethatglitters 
TikTok has benefitted from people’s increased boredom and screen time during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has helped artists like BENEE, Megan Thee Stallion and Lil Nas X secure hit singles. The real question is, is it a viable new music discovery platform?
What is TikTok?
Before we go deeper, let’s learn how this topical app works.
TikTok is a social media platform where people post short videos. These include lip syncs, dances, comedy sketches and more. They usually last for 3-15 seconds and often feature snippets of songs. Some tracks have become almost synonymous with the platform due to trending choreography “challenges”.
Musicians can potentially gain mass exposure on it as there a are reportedly around 800 million active users. The audience size is amplified even more thanks to the number of people who consume TikToks without having an account via other platforms.
Who is behind TikTok’s biggest hits?
For an independent survey conducted for this article, people were asked what songs they had discovered via TikTok. ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X, ‘Supalonely’ by BENEE and Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Savage’ were some of the most popular answers. ‘Think About Things’ by Daði Freyr (AKA Iceland’s would-be bop of a Eurovision 2020 entry) also deserves an honourable mention.
Texan rapper Megan Thee Stallion helped make US Chart history with her single ‘Savage Remix (feat. Beyonce)’ when it topped the Billboard 100. Meg’s chart success this time around can be heavily attributed to the ‘Savage Challenge’. It has received almost 12 billion plays via TikTok.
Meanwhile, BENEE, a New Zealand-based alt-pop artist saw an explosion in popularity after her single ‘Supalonely (feat. Gus Dapperton)’ went viral on tiktok. On the app alone, ‘Supalonely’ has surpassed 8 billion plays.
The rise of an artist or single can depend on countless factors, yet both of these tracks do make a strong case for TikTok being a new music industry catalyst. Does this mean then, that TikTok is THE place to discover quality new music? This is still hotly debated.
Viral or manufactured success?
In our previously mentioned survey, 44% believed the platform was a viable place to discover new music but the rest disagree. This data is far from conclusive but it offers insight into how divisive the app is. Even with it’s global audience and estimated 75 billion dollar net worth there are still concerns. Last week TikTok faced fresh privacy concerns. India has banned the app and other countries like the US may follow suit.
Another factor to consider is that artists getting their big break thanks to TikTok is rarely the result of organic engagements and having luck with the algorithm. Most artists’ success stories relating to it are about already heavily tipped and industry backed ones with timing on their side.
BENEE was already signed to major label Republic Records before ‘Supalonely’ caught the imagination of TikTok users. Additionally, she had multiple platinum singles in Australia and her native New Zealand.
Megan Thee Stallion was quite well known before ‘Savage’ dropped as well. She had received attention on her freestyle videos uploaded onto Instagram and her debut mixtape ‘Fever’ was critically acclaimed. She coined the famous phrase “Hot Girl Summer” too.
TikTok’s popularity is now being leveraged by large artists to promote their work. ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd would most probably have been a formidable hit without a challenge to boot. ‘Tootsie Slide’ by Drake even includes a built-in TikTok friendly dance routine.
Silver linings
Lil Nas X is the main outlier who shows that fledgeling musicians might still find fame on TikTok. His innovative country-trap record ‘Old Town Road’ first conquered the app, then the world, early last year thanks to the so called “yee-haw challenge”. Nas X created his own memes featuring the song as a promotion tactic. Thanks to its TikTok success, the track topped charts in countries such as the UK, America, Norway, Ireland and Sweden. It even spawned a remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus too!
Artists can also use the app to get a second shot of breaking through. SALES are a great example of how this can happen. Their new found popularity was unintentional as a random user picked up the song for a video. The indie-pop duo from Florida saw their 2014 single ‘Chinese New Year’ blow up on the platform 6 years after its release. Member Lauren Morgan said: “SALES wouldn’t exist without music blogs or Soundcloud or Spotify and now TikTok. It’s incredible how our project has been picked up by every niche of the internet.”
Conclusion
The content and music used on TikTok can often be cringe inducing. However, it has had a definite hand in the rise of several artists.
TikTok’s longevity might be under threat thanks to privacy concerns. In the meantime, as major labels and artists muscle in on the success of the app they might sadly saturate the market too.
Despite this, emerging artists might still have hope thanks to the rise of Lil Nas X. His story is an anomaly but as long as TikTok’s user numbers and value keep rising then the stage could be set for others to come after him.