TikTok gives artists new tools to track and boost viral songs
TikTok has boosted the careers of numerous musicians, thanks to their songs—both new and old—going viral. The latest example is Connie Francis' 1962 hit Pretty Little Baby, which is currently inescapable across For You pages.
Now, TikTok is making it even easier for artists to capitalize on viral moments. The platform has rolled out its music insights tool globally, following a limited beta launch that was quietly tested with a select group of artists two months ago.
TikTok for Artists offers musicians daily updates on how their songs are being used and which tracks are generating the most engagement. Metrics include the number of views, posts, and creator interactions per song, as well as insights into each post's performance. Artists also gain access to demographic data about their followers, such as age, language, and self-identified gender.
'All tiers of artists will gain insights on TikTok that they can use to take their careers to a whole new level,' said Tracy Gardner, TikTok's global head of music business development, in a statement. 'We built the platform to give artists transparent access to useful, actionable data about their music and their fans, to help them better engage with the TikTok community and supercharge their careers both on and off the platform.'
One early tester, Cyril Riley, said: 'My team and I rely on TikTok for Artists daily, sometimes even hourly. In such a rapidly evolving industry, it's crucial for us to consistently monitor and review the analytics of my account.' Another musician, Jordan Adetunji, called it a 'game changer.'
Alongside the analytics tool, TikTok has launched a pre-release feature that lets artists promote upcoming music on the platform. Fans can pre-save unreleased albums directly to their Spotify or Apple Music libraries, making the music instantly available when it drops.
Not everyone is enthusiastic, though. Some critics view this as TikTok following in Spotify's footsteps (Spotify launched Spotify for Artists back in 2016), fostering a culture of music made specifically to go viral. As The Fader 's Jordan Darville writes, 'a massively popular app creates artist 'services' that steer the sound of music in directions more profitable for the platform, and simultaneously throttles royalties to make shareholders happy.'
Perhaps these new TikTok features will inspire more unexpected comebacks from pop icons of the '60s—or maybe they'll just give us new options to soundtrack our TikTok carousels.
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