"In the midst of major changes in the music industry, tiktok has emerged as perhaps the most influential." --Lilah Aparton 8th Grade
In the midst of major changes in the music industry, tiktok has emerged as perhaps the most influential. As a result, songs are shortening and prioritizing hook-driven verses with catchy and generic melodies. According to Stereofox, “If a snippet is catchy enough and it does become viral on TikTok, artists can expect a spill-over effect—streaming spikes or popularity peaks on other major platforms due to those trends. That is why often artists and labels reach out and pay to TikTok influencers who then create content with their music. All with the hope to hit that much-desired viral effect.”
But it hasn’t always been this way, Domino Howlett-Cragg an, 8th grader in Lit Arts says, “[Music] not really branching out and being as innovative as it was in say 20th century, which that's fair because due to the extreme uprise in pioneering music during the 20th century, its very hard to sound original, and I feel lots of artists have stopped trying to be original and are starting to sound like the past or just really generic and boring.”
Songs become overplayed on TikTok by design, which encourages users to reuse catchy 15-second song snippets in their videos, further supporting the fact that music is getting shorter to focus on its attention grabbing elements. But is it a change for the better?
“Although it’s not entirely true for everyone, it's not very good for the music industry, and the reason why things like this happen is because of TikTok–making artists more concerned about the general audience actually liking them than expressing themselves or making music that's even any good,” says Howlett-Cragg, “which is famously how many revolutionary and pioneering artists became the legends that they were through self expression and having a lack of care for what people thought of their sound,” she continues.
TikTok’s success in the music industry is largely owed to its hyper-personalized algorithm, which determines content visibility based on engagement, and ad preferences. However, many in the industry worry that this leads to artists sacrificing authenticity for virality in an attempt to gain a larger audience of fans.
But this presents a new issue, how much are artists getting paid from Tiktok?
A 2024 article from xposure.com, mentions that, “Based on the latest available data, TikTok pays about 3 cents for each new video that includes your song. This implies that you'd need 1,000 videos using your music to earn $30. With these numbers in mind, 1,000,000 uses of your track would generate approximately $30,000.”
Tiktok is predicted to reach $32.4 billion in revenue by the end of 2025, with even popular music artists only getting a small fraction of that. But Spotify pays even less. Although how much artists get paid on spotify depends on a number of factors, it generally pays $0.003 to $0.005 per song streamed. So artists adapt the structure of their songs to go viral on TikTok.
But this presents an issue, because a lot of artists are sacrificing their authenticity to go viral.
“I think many artists are more concerned with if they will get played on the radio, and their fame, than actually writing a good well-written song, so that may be the reason why songs have changed their structure, which most of this stems from Tiktok hate and trends,” says Howlett-Cragg
However, these changes aren't all bad. TikTok gives artists the opportunity to self-promote without a major label involved. It also lets artists build a better fanbase and be able to see who’s playing their songs. But while Tiktok offers artists unprecedented access to global audiences and exposes users to new music, it also raises questions about what artists focus on when making a song. Will artists keep sacrificing their authenticity just to make a catchy hook, or will things change? One thing is clear, as the digital age continues to evolve, musicians, true to their nature, will adapt.
But it hasn’t always been this way, Domino Howlett-Cragg an, 8th grader in Lit Arts says, “[Music] not really branching out and being as innovative as it was in say 20th century, which that's fair because due to the extreme uprise in pioneering music during the 20th century, its very hard to sound original, and I feel lots of artists have stopped trying to be original and are starting to sound like the past or just really generic and boring.”
Songs become overplayed on TikTok by design, which encourages users to reuse catchy 15-second song snippets in their videos, further supporting the fact that music is getting shorter to focus on its attention grabbing elements. But is it a change for the better?
“Although it’s not entirely true for everyone, it's not very good for the music industry, and the reason why things like this happen is because of TikTok–making artists more concerned about the general audience actually liking them than expressing themselves or making music that's even any good,” says Howlett-Cragg, “which is famously how many revolutionary and pioneering artists became the legends that they were through self expression and having a lack of care for what people thought of their sound,” she continues.
TikTok’s success in the music industry is largely owed to its hyper-personalized algorithm, which determines content visibility based on engagement, and ad preferences. However, many in the industry worry that this leads to artists sacrificing authenticity for virality in an attempt to gain a larger audience of fans.
But this presents a new issue, how much are artists getting paid from Tiktok?
A 2024 article from xposure.com, mentions that, “Based on the latest available data, TikTok pays about 3 cents for each new video that includes your song. This implies that you'd need 1,000 videos using your music to earn $30. With these numbers in mind, 1,000,000 uses of your track would generate approximately $30,000.”
Tiktok is predicted to reach $32.4 billion in revenue by the end of 2025, with even popular music artists only getting a small fraction of that. But Spotify pays even less. Although how much artists get paid on spotify depends on a number of factors, it generally pays $0.003 to $0.005 per song streamed. So artists adapt the structure of their songs to go viral on TikTok.
But this presents an issue, because a lot of artists are sacrificing their authenticity to go viral.
“I think many artists are more concerned with if they will get played on the radio, and their fame, than actually writing a good well-written song, so that may be the reason why songs have changed their structure, which most of this stems from Tiktok hate and trends,” says Howlett-Cragg
However, these changes aren't all bad. TikTok gives artists the opportunity to self-promote without a major label involved. It also lets artists build a better fanbase and be able to see who’s playing their songs. But while Tiktok offers artists unprecedented access to global audiences and exposes users to new music, it also raises questions about what artists focus on when making a song. Will artists keep sacrificing their authenticity just to make a catchy hook, or will things change? One thing is clear, as the digital age continues to evolve, musicians, true to their nature, will adapt.
