Abstract
This paper demonstrates how the social media platform TikTok can be a heaven for emerging and non-emerging artists in the music industry. Outline that the distribution of those music is free of charge and the artists do get a revenue by signing a license agreement for the TikTok platform. More visibility is obtained to make new artists have a moment of glory and promote their musical content. TikTok makes people discover different of genres and moods of different artists. Bringing back to life old songs that have been a marvelous idea as the new generation gets to discover oldies and make parodies out of it. TikTok has a lot of interesting features compared to other social media platforms such as providing free-to-use music tracks and making these musical artists to upload their musical content on its platform. Outline the revenue of artists and the aspects where the TikTok platform signed contracts with top musical companies for these artists to have the same opportunities in spreading their artwork to the billions of people watching TikTok on a daily basis.
Keywords
TikTok, Artists, Discovering, Launching, Musical Platforms, License, Revenue, Visibility, Trend
Seedoyal_20264514_Conference paper
Introduction
Launched in 2017, the TikTok platform has brought a major turn in the world of social media platforms. Providing features that other platforms could not offer such as content in the form of video format only, 15-60 seconds of videos created by its users, having its own editing tools, and the use of a vast number of filters. These features have made it achieve a success of 800 million of active users on a daily basis and a download count exceeding 2 billion. Being accessible in 150 countries, it has won the hearts of teens and young adults (Li et al., 2021). TikTok has gained an exponential popularity due to its feature of a proprietary recommendation system that customizes the “For You Page” interface to turn the user addicted to scrolling on the platform. There is an AI System that analyses the interests of the users and shows related content every time the user connects to the platform. Algorithmic calculations are being done by the AI system so as to provide the best service in terms of content to satisfy the want of the user specifically. It cannot be denied that sound and music are the core elements that make the true essence of TikTok. They have a crucial role in building up livelihood online communities (Zeng et al., 2021). TikTok is well aware of the importance of music in the life of each individual so how far can TikTok contribute to the music industry in terms of discoverability and introducing new artists?
License & Revenue
All artists for many decades have had the same struggle and that is money. Certain platforms do pay, and some don’t, so certainly do feel discouraged because they are not getting their daily bread out of it and can barely afford a proper living. Spotify, Deezer, and Apple Music are among the prime leader in terms of musical platforms. Each has its features and rights that are exclusively reserved for them. To access those rights many artists have agreed on those terms but turn out to be unprofitable as they are being paid less and they are being exposed to a large audience as they are ditching a certain part of their fanbase who cannot afford to pay. Spotify and Apple Music are examples where the income is very low and not worth signing for compared to other platforms (Mourelatos & Mourelatos, 2022). TikTok has another method of paying for artists. An artist does get their revenue depending on the calculations done for royalties and the number of contents made on the artist’s music. This concept is revolutionary compared to other music streaming platforms that lay on the number of streams. TikTok has lately announced that it has sealed a licensing deal in mutually sharing music with the top 3 musical labels such as Warner, Sony, and Universal Music Group. This deal will make artists to expand their visibility and they will get more income for the artists and for the TikTok company as it will have more music to add to its library (Kaye et al., 2021). The benefit of TikTok is that the distribution is done freely without any fee from the artists or from the user. Artists have now made it a must to be on TikTok in order to leave or imprint their trace in the mind of the current generation as the other musical platforms are becoming outmoded (Li et al., 2021). People nowadays are living in an era where it is becoming more and more difficult for people to earn money, TikTok has understood the problem and made life easier for these people thus outlining TikTok as a launching platform for artists who want to earn money. In terms of licensing, there would be copyright in the songs that they will produce which is advantageous for the artists (Salsabila et al., 2021). In this paragraph, TikTok provides a facility payment that is more free, accessible, and more profitmaking for the artists and for the company which converges towards the discovery of new artists in the musical sphere.
Visibility
TikTok has known an unprecedented popularity, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when the number of users has doubled due to the lack of entertainment in their life changing the way consume music. Concerts and musical album releases have been postponed which has been a great disappointment for the fans and caused artists to be jobless. TikTok had become a trendy app and artists have decided to exploit it for their own benefits. It has been noted that popular European artists have been using TikTok to increase their presence during this hard time (Mourelatos & Mourelatos, 2022). Many musical Artists have adopted this new way and started to share musical content on this platform. They have seen their popularity and exposure triple and have a high streaming value. New talents have emerged in the musical era creating a fierce competition in terms of viewers. Lil Nas X is one example where this popular artist organized a series of Roblox concerts inviting millions of fans which has been streamed on the platform TikTok. Mark Soriano is a musician and has been a revelation to the whole world, he used the TikTok platform to express his creativity which has successfully achieved. At that time there was a great demand by fandoms around the world to live stream or to create virtual. TikTok has heard those grievances and has used the latest technology to virtually recreate a virtual concert streaming around the world at the same time. concerts (Situmorang, 2021). In terms of fanbase, TikTok has no reproach on that as for every artist their fanbase has known an exponential rise in terms of listeners. From emerging artists to popular artists, TikTok has assured exposure to the musical content and has promoted it in a rapid way, it has offered a vast variety of music tracks free to use for users to use to make their content during the pandemic. TikTok has offered a new way for fans to still maintain their ties with their favorite artists (Wang et al., 2019). This paragraph shows how TikTok has given visibility to musical artists, kept their musical careers going on, and the growth of their fanbase.
Trend
Today’s generation is one that follows where the tendency of the people tends to go to in terms of fashion, technology, or even way of living. In this case, TikTok has become the trendiest social media application that has changed the way people interact online by proposing users to engage in dance challenges using a library of sounds, songs, and filters. In contrary to other social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram, TikTok has a higher growth rate due to its interface which is much more practical to use, share and create content than its predecessor in terms of video format sharing (Sarwatay et al., 2022). TikTok unknowingly has made possible the revival of songs where oldies and forgotten songs have resurfaced making the generation Z and the upcoming to discover it. These songs have been combined with dance choreography like Say So, Renegade, and Cannibal. TikTok users have started to use these old songs and mimic these dance movements which gradually became viral. These artists within days appear on the top 10 charts of worldwide music of the most listened to music. This case is applicable to emerging artists like for example Addison Rae in her song “Obsessed” which has created a buzz on the TikTok platform (Cervi, 2021). TikTok makes users discover various types of genres and moods. This popularizes the emerging artists making their music artwork available for TikTok to use and discover. “The Ratatouille” is an example where the music was redone with a choreography imitated by millions of TikTok users making the song go viral. The revival of this funny song was initiated by a TikTok user bringing a feeling of nostalgia and the artists have regained popularity. Different users use the same song which leads to a chain effect that it has on the musical charts is that on commercial radios and other music streaming platforms, they are being played on a daily basis as people have been addicted to them. Once a user hears a piece of music on TikTok they quickly search for it on the internet and download it making them fond of the song. Songs can become popular, and the post effects it has on the mind of a person after being exposed to a style of music (Gagliardi, 2022). One must be aware of the latest trend and be able to adapt to it. TikTok has understood the functioning of this new system and has tried its best in developing an algorithm that will make the artist’s song to appear in TikTok users’ interface promoting their song and making them become a trend among the TikTok community first then to people outside the platform (Klug et al., 2021). Songs can go viral and be reborn within seconds if they are well-interpreted by the TikTok community. Musical artists through TikTok have the opportunity to shine and make their music become a hit as it can be seen in this paragraph.
Conclusion
To conclude this paper, it can be seen that TikTok has completely shaped the world of social media platforms with its unique features. TikTok has already discerned its true value in contrast to the four dominant ones, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. TikTok already planned its strategy in terms of content, interface, and system so as not to copy from its predecessors. This strategy has perfectly been executed and TikTok has now reached among the top 3 of the best social media platforms. During the Covid-19 pandemic, TikTok has been a great help in entertaining all age groups saving the people’s mental health, and keeping people happy through musical content. Most youngsters agree that they prefer using the TikTok platform and the majority of the songs and genres they listened to come from it. Throughout this paper, a deep analysis was done to show how TikTok has contributed to the success of certain artists by revealing their dark horses and launching their careers at the international level. TikTok has fulfilled the need and wants of artists and its users in terms of license deals, revenue, visibility, and trend. Artists have now realized the importance of TikTok and in the future will think twice before quitting the TikTok platform one day. TikTok will continue to innovate in the music industry as TikTok will become lifeless and boring without any music or sound. TikTok is only limited to music artists only but also to vloggers and content creators that another side of TikTok that must be explored.
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Hi L, The thing is the paper is mainly concentrated on the African continent particularly.If you make an analysis of…