10 winning tips to promote your music on TikTok
Image credit: Nik
YouTube reveals the country where both creators and viewers are exploding in engagement and it’s surprisingly not the United States.
TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, making it the fifth most popular social media platform in the world. That means it offers huge potential for getting discovered and finding fans for your music.
TikTok’s platform allows you to reach listeners in a number of unique ways. There is the potential to be discovered in viral videos, to connect with viewers through videos, and to start trends that skyrocket your career.
It can be hard to know where to start. We’re here to offer you 10 simple and engaging ways that you can reach audiences around the world to grow your music career and gain traction.
Add your music to TikTok – worldwide exposure!
First things first, let’s get your music added to TikTok’s library so that it can begin having an impact. With your music uploaded to TikTok’s library, anyone in the world can use your tracks as the soundtrack to their videos. This offers huge potential for exposure with just one simple step, whilst making money every time your music is used and sent out to the world.
There’s so much potential in getting your music on TikTok, and with RouteNote it’s free and easy to do. Simply follow these steps to get any of your tracks added to TikTok and ready to be shared with the world:
- Sign up to a free account at www.routenote.com
- Head to ‘Distribution’ and ‘Create new release’
- Upload your music and format your details
- Select TikTok and any other music services you want to release your music on
- Send your release to our team who will send you off around the world
Now your music’s on TikTok, we can look at ways to maximise your presence, grow your career, and lead your music to stardom.
Get your snazzy Artist Account – your very own hub
Every artist needs a home on a service, like their artist pages on streaming services. Thankfully, last year, TikTok added Artist Accounts to boost the presence of artists on their video platform and give them more promo.
Claim your Artist Account to get an official ‘Artist’ tag on your profile as well as a bunch of bonus features. Once you’ve claimed yours, you will have your very own tab with all of your music in one place for new listeners to explore.
To get your Artist Account, log in to TikTok and click this link on mobile. You will need at least one song uploaded to TikTok first.
Once claimed you can now push your new releases with a ‘New’ tag, encouraging users to check it out and use it in their content. You can also tag your own videos at the top of a song page so that viewers looking at a song can view the real deal before looking at fan content.
Start a trend – challenge your fans
Now your music is up on TikTok, you can use it in your videos. That makes it the perfect chance to encourage other people to create videos with your music in the background. There’s no better way to do that than by starting a trend.
Create a video that is simple and easily replicated, setting your song as the backing track to it. Then when you upload it use a call to action to encourage other people to recreate it in their own uploads. Think of ideas that will encourage people to take part like a dance or an interesting action.
Once a few people start recreating your video, the snowball is rolling and gathering momentum. Each video encourages an entirely new audience to take part and create their own video and before you know it viewers around the world are hearing your songs.
Use Fan Spotlight – connect with fans by promoting them
TikTok launched Fan Spotlight earlier this year as a unique new way for artists and fans to interact. The feature allows all artists on TikTok to highlight particular videos at the top of their music tab. You can choose to spotlight up to five videos at a time, giving your fans the recognition and promotion that they crave for a meaningful connection with you.
This simple but powerful move will enhance your relationship with your audience and encourage more fans to create videos with your music for a shot at the spotlight. Being recognised will also provide a meaningful moment for fans, encouraging them to stick with you in the long run and remain a dedicated fan.
@musicontiktok Hey artists 🌟 Fan Spotlight is here! Pin your favorite fan videos and refresh your TikTok profile easily in just 3 clicks! Let your fans know you’re vibing with their content ❤️
♬ original sound – MusicOnTikTok
Interact with your fans – engagement builds engagement
Interact with your fans and you’re bound to breed a community and encourage growth. Respond to comments on your videos and content to start a conversation and show your fans you care. Watch the videos that people are making with your music, like and repost them.
This easy engagement means a lot to the fanbase and will spread positivity around your brand, as well as encourage people to take part in what you’re doing more.
Read our in-depth advice on cultivating your audience and building strong connections with them in the article below.
Go behind the scenes – give fans more
Build your world by taking fans behind the scenes of your music-making process. Short, revealing videos that give a glimpse into your life are fascinating to your fans. You can even use this type of content to tease new releases or to reveal that you’re working on a new album.
TikTok’s Behind the Song feature for artists with an Artist Account lets you add revelatory content to the top of your song page. Take your fans behind the creation or meaning of a song and they will hungrily eat it up.
Release a TikTok-friendly song – increase your potential
You can release any of the music you’ve made to TikTok, no matter the genre or vibe. However, you can think about what works well on TikTok to make a song that specifically appeals to TikTok creators if you’re looking to get reach on the platform.
TikTok likes poppy, catchy songs. Think up something with a catchy melody and memorable lyrics. Think of a lyric that might work well in a viral trend on TikTok. Having a build up in your song can be a great TikTok-friendly choice, allowing for videos to use your song to build up to some sort of “punchline” moment.
Use a broad range of hashtags – tag to bag new viewers
Adding hashtags to your content is a fantastic way to reach new viewers. If you release content on its own, then you’re only going to reach your followers and rely on the luck of the algorithm to push your content further. But you can reach many more viewers by adding relevant tags that allow users searching for that type of content to discover it.
Use broad hashtags to reach a large audience and use niche hashtags to increase your visibility with a more targeted audience with less competition. Examples of hashtags can be: The genre of your music, the things you’re doing in the video, or the emotions and themes contained in your content.
Collaborate with others – teamwork makes the dream work
Get involved with other creators on your content and music. There are many reasons why working with others is a fantastic opportunity to grow.
First of all, you’re reaching an entirely new audience through the fanbase of the person(s) you’re collaborating with. Secondly, you can teach each other new ways of working and inspire development with each other. Other people’s knowledge can expand your content and help your future to grow with more ideas to build upon.
You could even create a TikTok video that uses another artist’s song to promote them in exchange for them using your song in one of their videos. These sorts of relationships help you to reach new listeners in a fun and organic way.
Utilise your analytics – analyse to optimise
Every time you upload new content, whether it’s music or videos, you can start tracking how people are interacting with that content. The views, clicks, shares, locations of viewers, demographics, and even whether people finished watching/listening or not can all boost your career massively.
Use this information to understand your audience. Demographics help you to know who your target audience is and therefore make content that appeals to them. Location data can help you to decide where to take your next concerts or where to shout out for a huge response.
On a more micro-level, the analytics of each song and video you publish shows you whether people liked it or not. If something works it will get more engagement than your other content. You can use this data to create things like that in the future, slowly working out with each release what people want and what they don’t.
TikTok provides analytics in their platform for the content you upload to your profile. At RouteNote, you can dive deep inside the performance of your music on every platform you release it down to the individual song. Knowledge is power, so be sure to use these reports to enhance your efforts.