"The music tiktokalypse," titled Pitchfork last Friday, one of the most important music magazines in the US, about the court order to shut down TikTok in the country. As if it were a perfect choreography, that was the spirit that spread throughout the music industry with the suspension of the Chinese social network, saved on Sunday by Donald Trump. TikTok was only offline for 14 hours in the US, but it was enough time for panic to spread in the music business, which has turned it into its favorite showcase.
There are artists who can develop their careers without any relevance on the cute dance network, it's true, but being big on TikTok immediately ensures a record deal, especially in pop music. It is the best launch platform: it triggers millions of streams on Spotify and other streaming platforms. Modern pop songs themselves have modified their structure and messages to suit the trends on the social network, with the chorus from the beginning, catchy lyrics without the need for consistency, catchy sound hooks, and shorter duration. TikTok videos have also decisively influenced concerts, which have been moving towards mobile's vertical broadcast. Its impact on music, particularly on new music, has been profound and widespread.
"Every era has its way of consuming music, and this is the TikTok era, just as before it was the radio or television eras. It is. It has enormous, massive influence, and I don't think it's a bad thing," says Paul Thin. "I'm not a big fan of the platform, but thanks to it, music has been democratized, it has allowed anyone from their home to make themselves known. That is super important because 15 years ago, music was a completely closed world that was very difficult to enter," adds the young singer, who finished second in the last edition of Operación Triunfo.
"I work with labels that when looking for new talents really take into account TikTok, it is what worries them the most and is the most relevant in their decision-making," explains one of the people who knows the US music industry best, Andreas Katsambas, president and chief operating officer of Chartmetric, the most used data analysis tool among record labels to assess the relevance of musicians. "Those labels look for talents that are hot on TikTok, with a growing audience, and use those numbers to then develop the artist on Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else."
"It is also true that there are giant musicians on TikTok who then do not attract audiences to concerts or festivals," warns the president of Chartmetric, who came to Spain in the last edition of BIME. "What is clear is that TikTok has had a huge impact on the music industry in many ways. It helps unknown artists to come out of nowhere and to succeed very quickly. The question is, how to repeat that success? How do you build an audience? That is, how does an artist who achieves viral success gain the loyalty of people, get a base of followers that allows them to replicate success."
His conclusion: "It is a great platform to discover music and to achieve great success, now we have to see if it will be there to help create careers as well. That will be the key in the future."
That is precisely something that Narcís Rebollo, president of GTS, the representation agency of Aitana, David Bisbal, Morat, Ana Guerra, Carolina Durante, Lola Índigo, Amaia, Pablo López, Bustamante, and Sen Senra, among others, doubts. "You can attribute the success of one song out of every several million released to TikTok. They are specific viral phenomena of content, and that is not going to build a career," says the former president of Universal Music, the highest-grossing record label in Spain for a decade. "A company that bases its strategy on TikTok shows a lack of knowledge and a lack of a global approach to the artist," he opines.
One song among millions, says the influential manager. He is not exaggerating: last year, 18 million new songs were released (one and a half million per month), according to a recent report by Luminate, an American music data analysis company. Is it a Silicon Valley myth that anyone can achieve viral success? "It's like saying that any human being can win the lottery. It's a bet with a probability of millions to one of winning," says Rebollo.
Mafalda Cardenal, continuing with the analogy, won that lottery. Her song Tu fan went viral in 2024 and now has nearly 90 million streams on Spotify, after two years of posting videos while studying at university. "I dedicate myself to music thanks to TikTok. It has helped me immensely, and I am super grateful," she explains. "It's wonderful the exposure it gives you and how with its algorithm, you reach a lot of people worldwide that you wouldn't otherwise access. My music started to be liked in Mexico, I toured there, and this year I will repeat after my first album is released in May."
Sabrina Carpenter, the most viral artist on TikTok in 2024.
In 2024, this 23-year-old artist from Alicante performed in venues with 150 people in Mexico; in 2025, she hopes to double that audience. This is how she makes money: through concerts and streaming platforms. "I had the option to monetize my TikToks, but I chose not to do it because the positive thing about it is that you can redirect all the TikTok traffic to your Spotify and Instagram accounts," explains Mafalda Cardenal. "I prioritize 100% the exposure TikTok gives you and how its algorithm then turns it into plays on Spotify, iTunes, etc."
Universal Music withdrew its catalog from the Chinese giant a year ago: the multinational considered the compensation to its artists for the use of their songs unfair. The divorce lasted three months and was sabotaged by Taylor Swift, who in April reached a personal agreement with the platform for her songs to be accessible again. In early May, Universal and the social network made peace, and it was clear that TikTok may not pay well for content usage, but it is a necessary evil for music. "You have to be on TikTok," admits Rebollo. "Obviously, there are artists who do not need it to have a career, but today it is an important tool."
In just seven years, TikTok has reached 170 million registered users in the US, which is half the population. It is the same number as Instagram and slightly less than Facebook, which has 194 million users. However, no social network is as focused on music as the successor to Musical.ly. "Any artist's marketing campaign that aims to have a massive reach must be on TikTok," says Blanca Salcedo, general manager of Sony Music, the second-largest record company in terms of business volume in Spain. "It is a very important network with a huge audience. Can an artist live in music without TikTok? Well, yes, especially if they already have a stable audience. I can't imagine Leiva there; he lives perfectly without TikTok, but it is true that most music phenomena occur on TikTok, and that includes catalog artists who have had a huge resurgence and have been discovered by for young people like Camarón, Melendi, El Canto del Loco, or Pereza».
«TikTok is the most decisive space for young music», states the general director of Sony. And what does that imply? «That implies problems. And it implies changes. It is a very important player, but there is a discussion: they do not consider themselves a platform to monetize music, but more of a promotional platform, but in reality, they are a consumption platform. We do not agree with that. TikTok is not MTV, it is not just a showcase. Consumption stays within it. If an artist gets hundreds of thousands of streams and goes viral and so on, the economic return is negligible. It cannot be denied that they have the capacity to create hits, but they are using music in a way that does not become a success and therefore is not monetized and not properly paid for».
So, does TikTok have excessive power in music? «It has excessive power in music and in the world in general», responds Salcedo. «In all of us, and in all ages, because we talk about it as if it were only a thing for young people, and it is true that it captivates that age group very much, but I am in the doctor's waiting room and I see ladies watching TikTok videos».
Paul Thin is 22 years old and is critical of the platform: he believes it has negatively influenced the way songs are listened to. In his opinion, the immediate and fleeting way in which content is consumed, an endless cycle of videos without context or connection between them, has caused «music to become a more superficial content» and has also led to «the artist consuming it in that way as well and thus starting to create it in that style». Now, in any case, he finds that the situation is changing and that there are all kinds of trends, and points out that «there are no longer typical TikTok songs». «Now that it is more mainstream, we are rediscovering songs of all kinds and Bad Bunny is topping all the charts with a six-minute salsa song».
Many people in the music industry, including artists, think it is an unfaithful partner, that together they have created a monster and that the dependence is too great. Would the closure, therefore, have been bad news for the sector, or the best thing that could happen? There is no easy answer to a complex reality, but in a business so focused on the short term, the easiest thing would probably be to answer by going back to the beginning: it would have been the tiktokalypse.