From watching, creating or commenting on videos, social media apps like TikTok have shifted how people are introduced to new music, artists or genres through its short-form content. TikTok has influenced the music industry whether it is through its marketing features, enabling artists to connect directly with fans and influencing music production.
Before the introduction of TikTok, however, discovering new songs or genres was shaped by conventional means: flipping through vinyl records, tuning the radio waves or conversing with others.
“Growing up, I went to a daycare that played a lot of gospel music and so gospel music, church music … playing violin and orchestra also really shaped me to really value musicality and rhythm when it came to songs,” Source A said.
With millions of users logging into TikTok, it has grown into a powerhouse where people can discover or interact with new music faster. Many videos on TikTok only average a minute or two, allowing creators to use the app’s music feature to incorporate songs into their videos, either as interactive elements or as background music.
“A lot of times with short-form content, you can’t really say a lot, so people rely on words [and creators will] play music in the background,” Source B said. “A lot of these snippets of songs will blow up, or they’ll become synonymous with this specific thing. Let’s say, for [example], like book recommendations … each account will probably use the same songs in their background.”
Not only is TikTok a platform to introduce new songs to its users, but it has also given a platform to many lesser-known artists to showcase their talents and have the chance to go viral.
“I think [TikTok] has allowed a lot of bedroom artists, people who are more indie and the everyday person, to kind of be able to create more,” Source A said. “Not just in music, but in the context of music, people who might’ve never thought of making songs or singing can just put up a video, if they want to, and then the public can decide via likes, shares, comments or whatever and can support a person who might have never [thought of] singing in the first place, which I think is a great way to discover talent actually.”
Some artists have recognized the success and audience that go along with going viral on TikTok. This realization has prompted changes in the way their music is being produced, as they may try to alter the structure of their song so that it aligns better with the short-form content format. They hope that by altering the strong structure, their music — or the artist themself — has a higher chance of going viral.
“When all of these songs start getting used, [they will be] heard by a lot [of] people,” Source B said. “Also, that changed the music industry, I think too, because a lot of music producers … are focusing on appealing to short-form content, so they’ll be making shorter songs that can fit in the span of a TikTok video or whatever, or they’ll have certain clips that will sound trendy [or] that can sound good in a[n Instagram] reel or a [YouTube] short or a TikTok.”
While some have noticed changes to the song structure, no one is sure what makes a video or song go viral. Some have pointed to the TikTok algorithm instead of a particular song structure that results in virality as the algorithm can push certain videos to the forefront of a user’s “For You” page.
“I think it is mainly the algorithm [that makes the song viral],” Source A said. “If [there] was a formula that [makes a song go viral, that] means that any song that is like that would go viral, which is not the case. There are some songs that people made that flop, and they don’t do well [in terms of virality] even though they have that same kind of [song] structure.”
Whether it is the algorithm or a similar song structure, overexposure to a certain viral clip could have the opposite effect and turn the listening experience into a less enjoyable one over time, which could be due to TikTok’s short-form design.
“Even if I do like the [TikTok viral] song in the beginning, at a certain point when you hear the song over, over and over again, you kind of get sick [of] it,” Source B said. “Think back to when you were younger, and the same song would play on the radio constantly. Even if you liked it originally, you get tired of it pretty fast and get annoyed with it, and because TikTok is bigger, it just happens so much more and much faster.”
Because of TikTok’s ability to reach many users with the same song, some fans may feel like some listeners who are discovering the music through TikTok and other short-form content are now listening to it solely because of its newfound popularity, rather than discovering the music or artist “organically.” Some believe that original fans are more authentic because they discovered the song or artist through traditional means, whereas others don’t care where they find new music.
“I feel like nobody found music organically in a sense,” Source B said. “You always got it from somewhere else, whether it be an algorithm pushing you [new music] or [through] YouTube recommendations or you heard it from word of mouth or a friend recommending it … Obviously, you can become a real fan through TikTok, but it feels like you only listen to the song because it got popular and it’s being used everywhere as supposed to, like, ‘oh, I listen to it and I really like it, and I’m becoming a fan of the group or whatever’.”
Regardless of finding the music “organically” or not, some believe that music is a personal relationship with the song and the feelings that come with it.
“Music is a kind of, to me, a creative release of emotions,” Source A said. “So if music is this kind of communal enjoyment of [how] a song can evoke emotion, then what does listening to it first or later matter? … To the people who think that it is a superior thing to like music like that … live life a little bit. There is so much more to life than owning something; being first to something, and let’s enjoy music that you can connect with.”
