Regardless of whether the rumor is true, music is already an effective strategy for TikTok marketers.
Rumors are swirling that TikTok may consider launching a music streaming service. The possibility was first reported by Insider, which noted a “TikTok Music” trademark application filed by parent company ByteDance with the US Patent and Trademark Office in May.
The application covers a service that allows TikTok users to buy, share, download and play music, create and share playlists, and comment on livestream music, audio and video. The filing also states that the service “provides users with podcast and radio broadcast content,” reports TechCrunch.
ByteDance already runs a Resso music service in Brazil, India and Indonesia that it has considered bringing to other markets and is very similar to the recent filing, a TechCrunch insider said.
The rumors follow TikTok’s launch of SoundOn – a music distribution and marketing platform to help music artists expand their reach.
“By launching its own music streaming service alongside SoundOn, TikTok will be able to offer a complete solution for both listeners and artists in the US,” write Aisha Malik and Ivan Mehta for TechCrunch .
What a TikTok music streaming service might mean for marketers
If the TikTok Music rumors turn out to be true, it would be hugely disruptive to the music streaming industry, affecting ad buying on other platforms while potentially offering marketers an alternative to the likes of Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. On the same subject : ACM Awards Travel to Texas in 2023, return to Amazon Prime Video.
Music is already a key driver of TikTok content and brands have been seeing organic success. The use of Kate Bush’s ’80s hit “Running Up That Hill” as a narrative device in the latest season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” introduced an entire generation to the music artist, leading the race back up the charts, garnering 1.3 billion views for the hashtag, #runningupthathill, and generating many videos showing people discussing the track and its use in the show, such as this one which has garnered 4.6 million views.
An old example, and one of the first to really show the power of music to drive organic marketing on TikTok, was the 2020 viral video by user Doggface, aka Nathan Apodaca, which attracted a whopping 86.6 million views, catapulted Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” track. to cool heights and was a marketing bonanza for Ocean Spray.
And brands are even going a step further by creating their own tracks to engage the platform’s music-focused audience. Applebee’s just dropped an original track “Taste My Face,” created with Gray North America, to promote its new wing-flavored lip glosses in a “Saucy Gloss” campaign. A TikTok video featuring the track has already attracted 6.2 million views.
It’s no secret that using music in marketing is effective, but TikTok has galvanized music as a marketing strategy, offering marketers a key way to reach and engage younger audiences.
“The recent short-form content revolution due to formats like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts has completely flipped the script,” writes Shubham Singhal, co-founder of The Girlfriend Box in this article for afaqs! Singhal explains how to create music-focused campaigns, noting, “It’s essential to identify the hook or drop of the song and curate a trend around it.”
Whether TikTok Music takes off or not, marketers can already maximize their efforts on the platform with the clever use of music.
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