How TikTok has changed music discovery
Break through artists, remixes, and personalization
By Anthony Vystoropski with art by sana ikramuddin
From TikTok trends to duets, TikTok is providing both a new way to discover music and changing how we discover music based on the app. In the growing age of technology, TikTok has made its name known as a platform in social media. No matter what side of TikTok you are on, the various algorithms will try and promote trending or popular music, as far as even seeing an artist attached to a particular post. It is always interesting to see just how tailored the for you page (FYP) is, or on the other hand what the FYP spits out thinking you might enjoy. In my case, I would like to highlight three artists I enjoy. Lana Lubany (@lanalubany), Joel Sunny (@joelsvnny), Ian Ascher (@ianascher) and Riordan (@riordan_).
Artists nowadays do not have to try and find a label to work with, sometimes they are discovered naturally through means such as TikTok which was the case for Lana Lubany. A UK-based Palestinian-American who rocked the music space when her first Bilingual song in Arabic and English came out entitled “THE SNAKE”. In the wake of the popularity of the song, she had a ton of industry leaders and record labels reach out and get to know her. This phenomenon is not unusual for record labels to do. Artists, producers, record labels and the like engage in paying creators and influencers to promote songs and song campaigns. Trendy song campaigns are at the forefront of TikTok and if they are paired with simple choreography, these campaigns can go like hotcakes. The key is to drive engagement. So when you pair a particular trending song with an influencer to start a movement or an ad saying “duet this with your take on the song and be featured as part of the campaign.”
No longer is TikTok just a platform to view and enjoy social media but it has become a platform for influencers, artists, models, and professionals to grow their own platforms and conduct business. Through bio-links and website-links creators are able to connect people and share more of their musical work such as singles and albums, through platforms such as Spotify, Youtube, and personal website pages. People no longer just find popular and trending songs on TikTok but they want more. Users want variation, remixes, and original content that may stem from the original song that has enticed their attention. Take Joel Sunny, he is a master of using his violin to “make what if this song” adaptations such as the Beyonce dubai riff turned into a movie soundtrack. Not only are people remixing classical, but all genres all the way to house music. Looking at Riordan, he fused and remixed what it would sound like if a Latin jazz artist decided to make house music. Which people took favor to and thought it was genius. All the while to Riordan this was just a mix that he created not thinking people would like the song and just released it on TikTok to see how people would react to it.
Personalization is ever so prevalent in our society and in TikToks. Some artists and labels will work with TikTok’s team to host private listening parties with creators to determine quantifying factors. Those factors are to get a sense of what is making or breaking music and to highlight certain parts of the song in TikToks themselves to gain a trending boom on the platform. Which is exactly what happened in the summer of 2020 with Miley Cyrus’ single “Midnight Sky'' having her team partner with TikTok to preview the song in two private Zoom calls with around 15 creators to give them a preview before its official release. If you are looking at a trending song and want to see a personalized spin on it, a remixed version, or a version in another language, all that is possible through smaller individual artists on the app. As many niches there are, there are bound to be people that share or like your music taste and if there is not, then you get to create your own version. Furthermore comments on videos and recommendations by fans are being noticed and taken into consideration by artists. Looking at Ian Ascher, he not only creates music that he thinks sounds good, spliced and mixed together but takes comments from his posts and caters to his viewers. As a result this creates a more interactive interface between his followers and his content. TikTok is providing a platform for novice artists to take off and break into the music industry. Every step along the way advances its popularity through new content ideas to redefine how we all discover music.
Source list
Mylrea, H. (2022, September 5). Lana Lubany: Pop Rulebreaker whose bilingual anthems are taking tiktok by storm. NME. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/lana-lubany-interview-the-snake-sold-tiktok-radar-3302515
Whateley, D. (2022, December 27). How Tiktok is changing the music industry. Business Insider. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-tiktok-is-changing-the-music-industry-marketing-discovery-2021-7