If I say, “TikTok” and Kesha comes to your mind first, then you’re just a naïve, lost tellurian- who is trying to get his time machine to work in an effort to bring back the era when it was not a huge social media platform with over 2 billion users watching you make 15 to 30 seconds video doing whatever you want to do.
But honestly, thank god for TikTok, right? It has made you jiggle and shimmy, gotten your acting skills known to the world, and blew up some insanely fetching music that is perfect for your bathroom performances. Let me get this straight, I love the fugacious videos on my timeline, they bewitch me enough to start learning those complicated dances and do them in secrecy. Even though there’s a ban in India and a few more other countries, Instagram reels are doing the job of TikTok’s just fine. This Gen Z famous platform has kicked off careers, inaugurated massive trends, introduced some nasty cultures and is the best platform to make a cutesy video for your best friend (buh-bye flipagram!).
But the question which emerges is that has it become the only tool for marketing for labels to promote their artists?
LABELS ARE “OBSSESSED” WITH TIKTOK
Halsey, a major pop star who has mega-hits under their banner recently came out about how their label is not letting them release their new song because the management wants to create a “fake viral moment”.
They wrote, “Everything is marketing. And they are doing this to every artist these days,” they went on to add, “I just want to release music, man. And I deserve better tbh. I’m tired.” (Halsey uses she/they pronouns).
Miss H did not lie, Florence Welch delivered a Capella version of “My love” with a caption which said, “The label are begging me for ‘low fi Tiktoks’ so here you go, pls send help”. So can you imagine the predicament of a singer who has been marketing their music before Tiktok was a legit contrivance?
Tiktok has been responsible for launching many small artists on their trip to stardom and rightly so, it is the easiest and quickest way to promote your art because where else will you see a combination of cosplay artists, ballerina and a wannabe werewolf anywhere else but this app? but is it really necessary for big names from the industry to “leak” a snippet of their song on the app and shorten it till it’s used as audio for a trend? Sure, the team is doing their job to advocate their client’s flair to people’s eyes but holding their music captive till a big pot of virality boils which diminishes the authenticity and emotions adorned in that piece.
Moreover, some artists just don’t understand the concept of TikTok and neither does their art tone with that app’s demographic and needs. Imagine Hozier being forced to make TikTok? Unimaginable (but not impossible)
The digital age of the industry is getting fierce and wilder than it has been, apps are allowing anyone and everyone to put out whatever they want and anything can go viral in a matter of seconds, I mean have you forgotten the woman banging her backside on the bed where her “Ah!” saw a fervid growth?
Audiences have always been pulled into this whole in-depth game of social media marketing but we fail to understand that some artists are trapped there with us. I do give full credibility and applauses to TikTok to raise some good names (Let’s go, Doja Cat) but it’s time for management to understand people know the difference between real art and art which is short-lived and no one would go back to. Moreover, art doesn’t need to be sold as a pack of gum. It’s supposed to be devoured like a fancy glass of wine.
