In the last century, music has been advertised by live performances, catchy jingles on the radio, and via TV commercials or billboards. While some of the latter methods are still useful, another advertising platform seems to be rising out of the dust. TikTok.
TikTok was fused with Musical.ly in 2018 combining previous users, audios, and features into a new app, exploding in popularity in the US. Now with over 1.5 billion users worldwide, users post a variety of videos such as lip-syncing audios, podcasts, story-times, hauls, dancing, and even advertising products, brands, and music.
Because TikTok has such a massive platform, many new artists have found it imperative to share 30 second clips of their songs in hopes their videos becomes viral, providing them with new fans.
And it has worked.
Take artist, Alex Warren for example. Alex Warren is a 25 year-old singer/songwriter who became homeless at 18 after the death of his father and when his alcholoic mother drove him out of the house. Even though Warren originally started his following on YouTube, he moved to TikTok accumulating 4 million followers. His first videos were daily life videos with his now wife Kouvr and covers of other artists. He expressed interest in music, having been writing songs since age 13 about the death of his father. In 2021 he released his first debut single, "One More I Love You" nearly 8 years later.
Now with 19.9 million followers and engrossing over 1.2 billion views on TikTok, Warren mostly utilizes the platform for teases and updates of his new music, including the announcement of the upcoming release of his first album "You'll Be Alright Kid" which came out mid 2025. He's also collabed with other famous artists, such as the Jonas Brothers, Jelly Roll, and Rosé who appear in his videos, amassing even more views.
Consequently, according to Spotify, Warren has almost 50 million monthly listeners and his most popular song "Ordinary" has approximately 1.5 billion plays. It is safe to say that TikTok advertising ultimately changed Warren's life.
Similarly, many other artisits have become popular thanks to TikTok, such as Tate McRae, Olivia Rodrigo, JVKE, and others. Although TikTok originally was not a platform utilized for advertising, it seems to have become one of the best, if not the best, ways to tease new songs and artists to the world.
Now, my question to you the reader: are there any other platforms that have alternative uses that differ from the original purpose of said app (like how TikTok was used to post short videos and skits, but now is utlimately used as a form of advertisement)?
I really enjoyed reading your blog post I feel like this is a topic I can heavily relate too. I remember TikTok blowing up especially during the COVID era. Looking back to that time I think majority if not all of the videos being posted were just fun dances and funny videos. After becoming popular it started transitioning from casual videos to a major advertising platform. I like how you used Alex Warren as an example because I literally found out who he was from hearing his song “Ordinary” on TikTok. I believe TikTok really can influence the trajectory of someone’s career. Social media seems to be one of the ways individuals these days can make so much money from just posting an ad or a video when they have a big fanbase. Someone could post a funny video of someone else and it could go viral and months later than person has millions of followers and is getting brand deals.
ReplyDeleteBrands are using TikTok to sell their products and it’s working, at least for me! I see things all the time and I somehow end up shopping on app that’s supposed to be entertaining videos. I also follow a lot of influencers that are always posting ads which I actually find a bit annoying because that’s not why I followed them in the first place but hey that’s how they make money! Going off your question, I believe Instagram has become the same way. Scrolling through stories there’s ads everywhere, there’s constantly suggested ads as you scroll through your main page, and there’s always ad videos I find myself accidentally clicking on. I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, but sometimes I think TikTok has a way of making ads not feel like ads if that makes sense?
TikTok has truly changed the game of social media. Starting out on musical.ly and taking the world by storm during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many instances where TikTok has become one of, if not the most popular, form of social media to date. In terms of music artists, I agree wholeheartedly that it has become a great way for artists to tease their music and also pick up any listening fans who may not have heard their songs yet.
ReplyDeleteI lived in Nashville, Tennessee, for a time, and reading this post made me think back to how difficult it was for new country artists to get a chance to go big. They would usually try playing in local bars and pray for someone famous to like what they hear and take a chance on them. Now in today's world of technology and TikTok, someone can go viral overnight.
Now, to answer your question, I think there are many alternative uses for social media, and the one that comes to mind is YouTube. When first thinking about YouTube, I think of mainstream vloggers, but I also have family members and friends who upload their own personal videos to YouTube as a place for storage rather than making them public. This could be an example of alternative uses for YouTube since it is mainly known for its use of public videos.