With TikTok offering a large audience to market to, musicians and artists must use the features effectively. 

By Didhiti Kandel 

It’s no secret that 2020 has been the year for TikTok. Launching first in 2016, TikTok has become one of the fastest-growing entertainment apps worldwide. 

With music integration being one of its main features, billions of users use it to create skits, dance challenges and other amusing content. With the onset of the pandemic, many people gravitated towards the forum for quick amusement. However, TikTok has been proven to be a great platform to market music for artists. With so many artists uploading their music onto TikTok in hopes of it blowing up,  thousands of artists from around the world are becoming social media superstars overnight. 

But does promoting an artist’s music on the platform actually work? Based on the results some Canadian talents have seen, TikTok has helped many artists. 

Last year Bbno, a Canadian rapper from Vancouver, gained recognition after his single, “Lalala” went viral on TikTok. The single, produced by Y2K has since gained over 400 million streams and has also received platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The artist was also nominated for breakthrough artist of the year and fan choice award for 2020 Juno Awards.

Vivian Hicks is another Canadian TikTok star who gained a huge following after she began showcasing her talent by singing trendy and famous songs. Her innovative covers have been re-posted and praised by a number of well-known artists like Meghan Trainor, The Chainsmokers, Bruno Mars and Fifth Harmony. She currently has 1.3 million followers on TikTok and 344k followers on Instagram.

Before you start marketing your music, it’s important for users to understand the TikTok algorithm. 

The For You page represents taste-specific content for each user on TikTok. The algorithm suggests content by rating videos based on several variables to shape users’ customized feed. User recommendations are based on the captions and hashtags included in videos. In addition, TikTok considers user interactions, such as the number of shares a video gets,  accounts that are followed by the user and their device and account settings. 

For more detail on how the algorithm engine works, you can visit the company’s website. 

Once you understand how the recommendation system engine works, there are several ways you can get your music trending on TikTok. 

1. Catchy song titles

If a song has a central word that is continually being repeated, whether it’s a chorus or a refrain, it is more likely to go viral. If users hear a song they like, they’ll be inclined to listen to more of the artist’s music on platforms like Apple Music, Spotify or any other music hosting site. 

2. Creating challenges and dance 

Dance challenges or challenges, in general, are one of the popular ways to advertise a song and make it go viral as certain songs become correlated with certain challenges. The “toosie slide dance” played a major part in the popularity of the song, “Toosie Slide” by Drake. It was the fastest music trend to hit a billion views on TikTok and currently has over six billion streams. 

3. Duets 

Interaction is key in getting your content out there. You can make a video using your songs and then invite your followers or fans to duet with you. In a duet, two people’s videos are played simultaneously. The more users duet your video, the more your video will reach a wider audience from around the world. 

4. Hashtags

Just like catchy song titles, creating a hashtag that catches the attention of users is important. Its simplicity will help create a good visibility that will enhance the success of the artists’ branding. Hashtags such as #canadian, #canada, #toronto, #ontario, #love, #music, #art are the most popular Canadian hashtags on TikTok with overall views of 650 million.     

5. Promote your TikTok videos on different platforms 

In order to gain more recognition, artists can share TikTok videos that use their music on different social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. For followers who want to catch up with artists on various platforms, this lets them know where to find you on TikTok. 

While having a huge following can help, it is important to acknowledge that with a huge following comes a flock of opinions and comments. They might not always be positive and it is important to remember that as an artist, one should always be ready for anything. 

TikTok is a fast-changing platform and if artists are able to understand the functionality of the app, it can be a great outlet for promoting their work.