Your Music in the Spotlight
A central element on TikTok: Music! In the background of the videos, it’s always present – Music belongs to TikTok like the festivals to the summer or the cakes to Steve Aoki. Music in TikTok videos seems somehow natural and is so understandable that TikTok music promotion or even music marketing is definitely not perceived as intrusive. This is perfect for musicians like you! Tiktok is ideal for newcomers, but also for established artists: by using their music, visibility can be achieved in a broad and diverse young audience. The dynamics of the platform contribute to the possibility of becoming (even) more successful.
You are wondering how this will work? If people just listen to my song on TikTok, I won’t have anything from it? Oh indeed, this can work very well. As with other types of promotion, it is important that you generate organic reach in a network. People listen to your song, maybe even in several creative videos, maybe as a dance, a meme, a duet or lip-sync and it just stays in their heads. Later, they search for the song on Spotify, Apple Music, or Deezer, and then stream it, like it, buy it, and boom, you’ve created your fanbase. Everything is great. Of course, it’s not that simple. A lot of preliminary work has to be done…
Nine Steps for Successful Music Marketing on TikTok
1. TikTok is a community.
TikTok is built on engagement and social interaction. So it’s best if you’re committed and interact with your fans – that’s how you create a successful brand and network. For example, you can do a duet with other users. Follow other users who you’re interested in or who make music and content similar to your own. That way you can learn and develop yourself. Even if you don’t like other music or genres so much, you can find out what works for creative musicians. As a start you can look at our artist Micha von der Rampe or the Biermann. Additionally: Thank others when they push your competitions and reply to messages and comments
2. Use TikTok any way you want.
You don’t have to continuously create content on TikTok like you do with other social media like instagram to build and maintain an audience. You can also take a breath. If you do it smartly, you can inspire other users with just a few videos, and your fans take your music out into the world. On the other hand, the short videos are only 15 seconds long and are based on only one hook of the song, so they are by far not as elaborate as real music videos and can be produced and published so quickly.
3. Relax and be authentic.
Above all, TikTok is designed to provide entertainment. The videos come along loose-light. If you’re not a born star, you might need to practice this, but if you can be silly and lovable and just act natural, it should work. At the same time, your content is competing with many other videos, so to get noticed and attract attention you sometimes have to exaggerate. So, stay true to yourself as an artist and make great videos on TikTok.
4. Perfectionism is out of place.
Yes, it can sometimes be stressful to be authentic, lovable, and original while delivering a perfect video. But it doesn’t have to be that way – TikTok is not about perfectionism. If you’re clumsy, make mistakes, or do anything that gets a little out of line, it usually works best and gets the most attention. Just be yourself.
5. Collaboration and networking.
TikTok thrives on interaction and engagement. TikTokers can inspire their fans to make more videos in a variety of ways. Make use of these things:
- Dances / Memes: Have you seen the “wap” dance? Just come up with funny or cool content for your music. If your idea is good, your fans will imitate the dances or memes and use them in their own context. For example, if the choreography is a bit challenging but still feasible, post it and provide a tutorial.
- Duet: In a duet, two TikTok videos are shown right next to each other, playing simultaneously. So, you have two possibilities: Either you create a duet to a video of another artist or influencer or you ask your audience to create a duet with your video.
- Reactions/Answers: This way you can interact directly with your fans or other TikTok users.
- Challenge: This is how you get users to create their own videos with your music. Whether you choose the best lip-sync, the coolest dance, the most creative background, the most charming performance or the funniest costume: Let your creativity run wild. And maybe you’ll write out a little reward for the winning video.
6. Hashtags always work.
You already know hashtags from Twitter and Instagram and they are also an important tool on TikTok. A mix of specific or even your own and more general hashtags works best.
7. TikTok is not your only channel.
Of course, a well-planned account on TikTok is not enough. Videos and, through tikcode, your account can be easily shared on other platforms.
8. Integrate location.
TikTok has a preference for localized content. Include local content and your location in your videos. For example, show sights or the dialect of the places you are in, as long as they are local. This is how you initiate a conversation – keep with authentic work.
9. Promote your music.
If you should start your own account now, you might want to do it this way: Kitty Challenge – checked. Chromo Filter – done. Hashtag #music – used. Duet with Cashmo – done. What you should not do in any case: Produce the short videos loveless and knock them out one after the other. But you shouldn’t be so rigid. You have to stay flexible and authentic, otherwise, your TikTok marketing campaign won’t work. Users like and want to follow an exciting story, so create an original account to build your brand and generate success on other platforms. You don’t need professional, long music videos, because you only have 15 seconds. The more you share your music via TikTok, the more commitment there is inside and outside the app.
A great example of a viral song is “Choices (Yup)” by E-40, where TikToker creates lip sync videos of the lyrics “Nope” and “Yup” with lyrics fields in the videos. They answer questions, alternating between yes and no. Just one example of what can work on TikTok. Major labels have discovered this and are signing artists whose tracks go viral on TikTok – because there’s a good chance that this success will also be seen on other platforms like Spotify and Co. Of course, it’s difficult to find a secret recipe for which song will definitely be successful on TikTok. But: Lyrics that users can visualize directly or beats that make you want to dance make it easier to create visual content.
Now you are ready for the TikTok challenge. Have you already had success with TikTok music marketing? Do you have enough experience to give good tips to other musicians and producers? Then let us know via the contact form. If you want to save yourself the time of creating a series of videos yourself and don’t want to become an influencer, you can simply order a TikTok music marketing package from BEFORE EIGHT, the marketing agency for Spotify and TikTok promo: We will find the most suitable influencers for your music promotion and your brand. And you can sit back and do what you really want: good music.
Ciao,
Your BEFORE EIGHT Team
