TikTok has dramatically modified music discovery and advertising — a reliance the looming U.S. ban on the favored app has underscored because the music world braces for an unknown future.
That the short-form video-sharing app would possibly shut down within the United States beginning Sunday has fostered a way of “marketing apocalypse” throughout the business, says Tatiana Cirisano, a music business analyst at MIDiA Research.
For years TikTok has been an integral device for many musicians, a jump-off level for artists trying to get away and an important promotional platform for established musicians.
In an more and more fragmented musical panorama, Cirisano says “Tik Tok served as sort of the one lightning rod where popularity could actually coalesce into a hit, and there actually could be these more mainstream cultural moments.”
Now, digital advertising firms say artists are scrambling to obtain and archive their TikTok content material earlier than the app goes darkish — the “worst-case scenario,” stated Cassie Petrey, founding father of the digital advertising firm Crowd Surf.
“We’ve helped a lot of talent build great audiences” on TikTok, Petrey stated. “It is unfortunate.”
What platform might fill a possible void is a query entrance of business minds; apparent near-parallels embody YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
Both options had been created in TikTok’s picture — however neither have loved comparable prominence.
“It’s one thing to measure the user base or the weekly active users of those platforms,” stated Cirisano, numbers she stated are on par with TikTok.
But by way of “cultural heft,” she stated, “they haven’t really had the same impact.”
Jahan Karimaghayi, co-founder of selling agency Benchmob, has urged purchasers to think about “changing their approach specifically to Instagram.”
“Instagram is a little bit more of an art gallery — it’s about showing content to your followers — where Tiktok it’s almost like you make content for people who don’t follow you,” he stated.
Sarah Flanagan, an influencer advertising skilled within the music business, echoed that view, saying that on TikTok “discovery is coming from a viral sound point of view” versus picture.
“That’s huge in terms of why Tiktok has worked so well for music,” she stated.
It’s one benefit YouTube — which Karimaghayi identified many individuals already use “as a jukebox”– might have.
“If people migrate to Shorts, there’s a real opportunity for artists to connect even more music,” Flanagan stated.
And Americans are already attempting new alternate options, like China’s well-liked viral video app RedNote.
It’s surged to high Apple’s free app downloads, although specialists say that may very well be a short-term development.
As earth-shaking as a TikTok ban stateside may very well be for music, “I think there’s definitely artists who will breathe a sigh of relief for their mental state if Tiktok goes away, because of just the pressure to create content, the pressure to go viral,” Cirisano stated.
In distinction to placing out a high-production music video, the explosion of short-form video has meant “suddenly artists were burdened with having to create their own format” somewhat than work with a full group, Flanagan stated.
“Nobody was telling them what to do and how to look cool.”
But specialists agree any respite may very well be temporary: dropping US TikTok will not spell the top of content material creation past the music.
“There’s very few artists these days that can put up music and do very little,” Karimaghayi stated.
For Cirisano, concern of a TikTok ban is a stark reminder that “social is what is driving music and culture, and that trickles down to streaming — when it used to be the opposite.”
Of course, TikTok will stay core to music advertising methods exterior U.S. borders — most stars have already got groups engaged on international promotion, and that will not cease even when American or U.S.-based artists cannot use their accounts domestically.
The change would possibly even profit already-huge markets in locations like Latin America and Africa, which might develop more and more dominant.
But it might additionally negatively influence these in search of to interrupt by within the U.S., which stays the most important recorded music market on the planet, the place many career-makers are primarily based.
“TikTok was sort of that crucial bridge between global regions,” Cirisano stated.
For a minimum of an interim interval, taking away TikTok would give “power and sway back to the traditional power players in music,” Flanagan stated.
But, “sometime change is good,” she added: “it was limiting in terms of how creative you could be when everybody always wanted to just push songs on Tiktok.”
And finally, the music business isn’t any stranger to evolving consumption habits or new media: “we’ve always kind of been at the forefront of technology,” Karimaghayi stated. “There will be a little bit of a bumpy road — but people are still going to use the internet.”
© 2025 AFP