By BROOKE LYONS
Have you ever been to a concert? Most people would be too stunned to process this special moment. The loud cheers from the crowd, faces lighting up, and music blasting through everyone’s ears — this is what makes the concert experience whole. But if you’ve never been to a concert, a placebo to this experience is just putting on your headphones, turning the volume up, and tuning the world away.
But, as artists start touring again and concerts begin to take place more, where does social media lie in all of this and how do apps like Tiktok affect this? As this growing app has exploded in popularity, people tune into their phone as opposed to a musical experience in person. This has had a major impact on social relations and music.
TikTok is a video hosting service owned by ByteDance that was first released in September 2016. The unusual algorithm has helped promote known and unknown artists and even just by using the right hashtags and appealing content, many gain a following incredibly fast.
“I think that the algorithm on TikTok is very focal and it’s taken all the artists,” Sophomore Aaron Wockley said. “I think Tiktok has affected the way people like music because a lot of the music is electric and funk.” This is somewhat true: according to the blog Music Tomorrow, on TikTok in 2022, electro-pop was the third most popular genre. The two genres ahead of it were hip hop, and rap.
Now you might be wondering how TikTok artists spend their earned revenue? “It’s fine for the revenue to go to themselves if they’re going to make it and put in the effort,” Junior Jotham Stephens said. This is a part of how artists may spend their money from the three cents they earn per video, but there are some ways they could earn cash even more easily.
Stephens also said, “TikTok involves a way of getting people viral with catchy songs.” For most undercover or TikTok-famous artists, some of the main ways they earn more money are by promo deals with music marketers. These promo deals are one way that underrated artists are brought into the spotlight by big labels. With each song, they could earn up to hundreds or thousands of dollars.
AR, or augmented reality, filters can also count as a reason why these small artists blow up all of a sudden. For example, some of the popular AR filters are filters that change your face such as “I love”. This adds on augmented reality makeup to your face for it to work. With these altered filters, artists can further connect with their audience: their audience only has to use the filter they promoted for their benefit and BOOM.
“I think money helps make people more popular, and people are getting paid to do things on TikTok for publicity,” Freshman Sara Kravitz said. Indeed, money does play a big role in how well your videos are going to do along with promo deals and a possible ban on the app, as proposed in the past.
If an actual TikTok ban were to happen in the United States, that would have a huge impact on young people (or something like this). “I think all the teenagers would get really bored and they wouldn’t have their own opinions because a lot of teenagers get their opinions from TikTok,” Kravitz also explained.
With a TikTok ban, some of the most likely events to happen would be at first a major label shift. With this ban, it is speculated that labels will have less songs being promoted.
TikTok has a much bigger influence on the music industry than most people realize as it grows more popular in the U.S. every day. Who knows how much music and the music scene will be altered for future generations?
October 2023
The Prowler 