How TikTok has helped Raye, GloRilla and more hit the big time
TikTok's new Music Impact Report shows just how much the platform's users are obsessed with music.
Artists like HitKidd, GloRilla and Raye have all hit the big time in recent years - and they can thank TikTok for a lot of their success.
Take HitKidd and GloRilla's earworm F.N.F. (Let’s Go) - it became a viral dance challenge on the social media platform last year, and it's boosted HitKidd's success so much that streams of his songs have grown all through 2023.
Raye is another example of a singer done good on TikTok, particularly after the sped-up remix of her song Escapism became a viral trend in 2022. Streams of her music have skyrocketed since then - which is good timing, considering she released her debut album My 21st Century Blues earlier this year.
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The findings - conducted by data company Luminate - come from the new Music Impact Report, looking into how TikTok users all over the world are listening to music, taking data from 10 countries - including the US, UK, Germany, Brazil and Indonesia.
It highlighted just how global TikTok is - which is good news if you're someone like emerging artist Zera.
She's an Austrian Serb who first started rapping songs in English, but her first breakout hit - 2021's Baraba - was sung mostly in Serbian, with a German chorus and influences from Latin Trap, Reggaeton and Western pop.
She's gone on to have another TikTok hit (Kalasi) and her overall streams continue to grow since then.
In fact, nearly half of TikTok users (46%) listen to music that is not in English - compared to 36% of music listeners overall.
TikTok users really are dedicated to music, it would seem, as they're much more likely to attend live concerts and spend money on other music-related purchases.
With recent collabs with major streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music, it looks like TikTok is purposely positioning itself to become an even more integral part of the music industry - and it seems to working. The report shows that nearly all TikTok users are also active on music streaming platforms, with a substantial number willing to pay for it. In the US, 44% of TikTok users subscribe to paid streaming services, while a massive 79% do so in the UK.
TikTok isn't just a platform for dance challenges and viral videos; it's a powerful force in the music industry, shaping how new songs are discovered, shared and enjoyed across the globe.
But not everyone is so smitten with the platform.
Last week, Nepal banned TikTok over its dissemination of hate content.
The country’s Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said the ban was 'necessary' because the app was “disrupting social harmony, goodwill and flow of indecent materials”.