TikTok users love music more than everyone else
A new report from TikTok shows that its users love music more than the average consumer and that their app is driving new music discovery.
A report published by TikTok explores the impact their platform is having with music. It turns out, TikTok users love music more than the rest of us. In fact, they claim that their app is driving music discovery more than other social platforms.
The study found that TikTok users are nearly twice as likely to discover new music than other social media and short form video (SFV) users. In Germany, TikTok fans are 96% more likely than others to search out new music. The UK had a similar result, with those on TikTok 92% more likely to discover new music on the platform.
They found similarly that their users are also more likely to share the music they discover and boost that artist’s reach. They are directly comparing the engagement here with competing platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, as well as social media.
They also found that their users are putting more money into artists and labels’ pockets than the average consumer. 62% of TikTok users in the US pay for a music streaming service, a lot more than the 42% of general consumers in a paid subscription for music. This is reflected in other countries they mention, including Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, and the UK.
Of course, we’ve covered before how TikTok can help to break an artist and drive streaming revenues. In the report, TikTok provide specific examples of songs that start trending on TikTok seeing a climb in streaming numbers. RAYE’s single ‘Escapism’ is given as an example after a sped-up remix went viral in videos.
Elsewhere, TikTok’s users are boosting the music economy by simply spending more than others. According to the report, TikTok users in the UK spend 49% more than average listeners on purchases like concert tickets and artist merchandise.
They even found that those using the TikTok app want to explore the work of artists around the world more than overall listeners. Conclusion? TikTok users are great and love music.
It is clear that TikTok has a profound impact on music, being a top source of discovery. Videos on the SFV platform are inextricably tied to music, which is added to the majority of videos from their huge content library. This presents a fantastic source of exposure for artists and discovery for listeners.
However, some of the stats may be incidental. TikTok users are generally much younger and the digital streaming landscape, whilst ubiquitous, is definitely adopted more by younger listeners than older listeners. So the correlation between TikTok use and digital music consumption largely makes sense.