Admittedly, when I first heard of popular app TikTok I never took it seriously and found the whole concept quite ‘cringe’, but it appears the app has had a profound impact on it’s millions of growing users.
What is TikTok and where did it come from?
Does anybody remember the constant sponsored ads for lip-syncing app ‘Musical.ly’? Go back a few years and I was constantly getting social media ads for Musical.ly which had a simple concept; people upload videos of them lip-synching to music, catch phrases or sections of movie/TV scripts. In late 2017, Chinese company ByteDance took control of Musical.ly and merged its current users onto TikTok – and it’s been a huge success!
Conceptually, TikTok is very similar to popular app Vine which was ‘indefinitely postponed’ in 2018. The format allows users to film and upload 15 second videos, alongside filters and music clips of their choice. The videos can be (and have been) anything, users have gained millions of followers by uploading comedy sketches, handmade music videos and short clips of their daily activities. Unsurprisingly, the most popular pages are those with the simplest videos but that tap into the ‘satisfying’ genre; such as craft content.
“YouTube created a class of five-minute content. I’m curious if TikTok will create the 15- or 60-second song.”
Jack Krawczyk for The Ringer
The app is consistently growing in users and followers with over 1 BILLION App Store downloads in 2018 alone. Regularly compared to upload giant YouTube, it appears TikTok has caught the global attention of Generation Z. Those in charge of marketing TikTok definitely know their audience, mainly using advertisements on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram which is guaranteed to be the reason behind their ever-growing user/follower statistics.
What does this mean for artists?
As far as I could grasp, new artists who want to gain exposure and increase their streams can pay users with a large following to use clips of their music. Even though it seems far reaching that many artists will be willing to pay someone else to use their music, they will benefit in the future. I’m sure they’ll all be looking at Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ and how TikTok gained it viral success and wanting a piece of the pie.
Again, I’m not 100% sure on what popular artists will be paid in the means of ‘pay per play’ when their music is featured on the app but I don’t doubt they’ll certainly be appreciating the extra streams. In a (not so) shocking twist, it’s even been rumoured that the creators of TikTok, ByteDance, are planning to launch their own streaming service in the near future.
The future of TikTok
It can’t be forecasted how the future will look for TikTok, will the popularity slow causing the app to stop? Or will it’s popularity continue at this consistent rate?
I would suggest it all depends on how the app creators develop the features, if they continue to add new in-app features and develop with the developing digital climate, they could be the next YouTube!
Popular YouTube content creators, television personalities and comedians have been taking advantage of the apps global reach so I can’t see it plummeting into the abyss anytime soon.
Music Talks UK 