👯 TikTok & Music: Friends or Foes?

Is TikTok really the easiest way to break through as an independent artist? Or is it reserved only for big budgets artists with a marketing army behind?

Whether you’ve went down the TikTok rabbit hole (too) many times, you’re just a casual user or you’re in denial of getting hooked on one of the most addictive video sharing platforms out there, the Chinese social media platform has become part of your life. Moreover, if you’re an artist trying to breakthrough nowadays, a lot of TikTok music success stories have been shoved in your face

Let’s face it: TikTok has this amazing skill of turning artists into stars overnight and this is all thanks to the different approach as a social media platform. You don’t need a followers’ base to become viral, as it’s the case with META’s instagram and facebook, where fans need first and foremost to express interest in your music by tapping the Follow button. In theory, you only need the proper audio hook and a few unedited raw videos of TikTok users taking your sound and snowballing it on millions of screens, be it goofy dance challenges or shady lip sync videos. After all, stripping down marketing and content strategies, these were the main ingredients for Doja Cat and Lil NAS X’ success stories.

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While the Chinese short video platform has indubitably become one of the main channels for artists to reach new audiences and promote their music, it still falls short as revenue generator. At least from some record labels’ point of view. UMG, the behemoth of the music industry, has recently announced that music signed at Universal  is no longer available on TikTok, following the failed negotiations to sign a new deal. As expected, a tsunami of reactions came afterwards, some of them supporting Universal, while others condemning the company’s greedy attitude. 3 million UMG songs were quickly removed from TikTok’s music library, followed by another 4 million songs from the label’s publishing portfolio. The music giant asked for a fair compensation for artists, as apparently the revenue is too small: 1% of UMG’s revenue (11 billion USD for the past year!). As expected, TikTok pointed that it’s not all about the money, but also the power to push artists onto the stairs of fandom. The winners: Instagram Reels and Youtube Shorts, as Universal stated. 50 to 70% of TikTok users are also on other short video platforms, so joke’s on you, TikTok!

Nevertheless, with these 2 Goliaths fighting to impose their own rules of trade (Universal has already went through similar battles with Youtube), what happens with the independent record labels and artists? By all means, there are artists who are directly affected, even if they are not signed by Universal. No music from major labels on TikTok would open a heaven for them, transforming the popular platform into an ocean of independent artists? Or maybe it’s the perfect timing to ask for a bigger share from TikTok?

Regardless the future collaboration between UMG and TikTok, both platforms will survive and thrive on their own, no need to worry about them. But what about the impact on the independent music scene? As more questions arise, we asked for an inside opinion. We fired a few questions to one independent record label that rely heavily on the digital streaming platforms to bring their music and artists in front of their fans.

Thrace Music is well known for its unique sound, crafted mainly by its head honcho Cristian Tarcea aka Monoir. It’s a blend of dance music with Oriental influences that attracted a massive audience on youtube: 3.12 million subscribers. A few years ago, Dharia, one of Thrace’s main artists, became a TikTok sensation after her song became viral in India. It goes without saying that Thrace Music has leveraged TikTok’s power to create smash hits, so we fired a few questions towards Chris, to learn a bit more from his experience, both as an artist and label manager.

I guess you know about UMG’s decision to remove all its content from TikTok. Do you see this moment as an opportunity for Thrace Music and its artists?

I think regardless of UMG’s decision, TikTok should be a taken in consideration as a very good option for all emerging artists as it can really help boost either releases, either them as artists through interactive content.

You have an amazing success story with Dharia on TikTok. What element made it viral? Only the music or was it also the visual element?

Good question, I think it was the musicality of the song that caught people’s attention, a musicality that didn’t need to be understanded as language and that anybody can sing along to, while the visual also helped through Dharia’s interesting look.

How much effort do you put in creating content for TikTok compared to other platforms like youtube or instagram? Do you feel the need to create a special kind of short form video content for TikTok alone?

I find it sometimes difficult as I find myself mostly in the studio, working, but I do sometimes create content for Reels/Shorts & Tik-Tok, creative content, something that I can show people that I think they’d find interesting.

Even though I’m not the biggest social media guy, I still agree that all these platforms come as a help in helping your music reaching a broader audience through the content that you make.

Can TikTok turn into a revenue source for Thrace at some point or is it just a promo tool in your marketing mix?

At the moment we all see it as a tool into our marketing. I think it’s the most important part of it for us. Having a tool like this to use whenever we release music. I think for influencers it’s more doable to turn TikTok into a revenue source.

Do you see a decent conversion rate from TikTok viewers to listeners on DSP’s like Spotify or Apple Music?

Not sure, but we’ve seen already that TikTok had a huge influence in the music market, helping many tracks that people forgot about, to boom again. So I think, TikTok already converted a lot of content users to turn to their social platforms. For me, at the end of the day, I’ll still listen to music on Spotify or Apple Music. I see TikTok as a visual short feed type of platform. I can’t imagine myself going to TikTok to listen to music.

Our personal feeling? TikTok should be just another paragraph in one artist’s promo plan. After all, you are creating music to establish a warm human connection with your fans instead of just aiming at serving them a dopamine dose on a smartphone screen.