Volunteer writer Valeriya Pukhova sheds light into how TikTok affects the music industry such as Nimco Happy.
TikTok is a social media platform for sharing short videos with over 1 billion users around the globe. Without a doubt, it has influenced many parts of our lives, such as fashion, make-up and interior design trends. It has also greatly affected the music industry, with a song “Isii Nafta” by Nimco Happy being a perfect example. In this way, TikTok appears to be a powerful promotional tool for artists, mainly due to new trends that emerge on a regular basis.
What does it take for a song to go viral? The process is quite simple. First, thousands of people upload videos using the same part of a specific song in a short period of time. Then, popular TikTok creators such as Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae catch up on the trend and promote the sound even more to millions of followers. At this point, almost every active TikTok user would have come across the sound at least a few times on their For You page.
In most cases, the said sound is quite catchy so a significant number of individuals end up searching for it on various music streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. In fact, almost 70% of users download music after hearing it on TikTok first, according to a study conducted by MRC Data. What’s more, it is apparent that a great deal of songs that are trending on TikTok make it to the top of the streaming charts mentioned above.
It is worth noting that it doesn’t matter how old the song is for it to go viral. For instance, “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” by Paul Anka was released in 1959, and it still managed to become incredibly popular on the app. Another example would be “Break My Stride” by Matthew Wilder, which was released in 1980s.
One could argue that a lot of young artists who have become world famous in recent years owe their entire career to TikTok. Personally, have never heard any of Doja Cat’s and Olivia Rodrigo’s songs until they popped up on my For You page. This is a clear illustration of how impressively efficient music marketing on TikTok is – it allows underground musicians to reach millions of people and get the recognition they deserve.
All in all, the influence TikTok has on the music industry is critical. For many artists, it has become a mechanism for finding a devoted audience, which leads to higher levels of income.
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Edited by Label Entertainment Editor, Uchenna Omo-Bamawo
Header Design by Assistant Head of Design, Beatrice Fong
