TikTok for musicians: does it work, and what should you post?

Does TikTok actually work for musicians?

It splits. Some of the artists we talk to say it worked for them, and when it did, it was usually one of two things: a single trend that fed streams of the song, or a posting habit they kept up for months. Others say they found the app overwhelming, or that the views never turned into follows.

Across every genre that tried short video in our work, the pattern was the same. Views went up, while followers and monthly listeners mostly stayed flat. A few artists had a clip with a huge number of likes, or thousands of followers, sitting next to a tiny listener count and no way to contact anyone who'd watched. A few lost years of followers in one go when an account was lost.

That's the honest picture. TikTok is a place where people find you. Whether they stay depends on what you do with each video, which is what the rest of this page is about.

How do you get your song onto TikTok?

1. Release it through your distributor and check TikTok is ticked. When you upload a release, most distributors list TikTok among the stores and services. Once it's in TikTok's sound library, anyone can search for it and use it in their own videos.
2. Use the released version in your own videos. Pick your song from the sounds in the app rather than recording it playing from a speaker, so every video carries the released recording.
3. Claim your artist account. TikTok's 2023 announcement describes an artist tag under your name, a music tab that collects your catalogue and adds new releases automatically, a way to feature a new release before and after it comes out, and "Behind the Song" for the stories behind your tracks. It's open to artists who have released music, and that announcement said you'd need four songs uploaded for the tag. Rules like this change, so check the current one in the app when you apply.
4. Keep the account in your name. Your email, your password, two-step verification on. Nobody else should own the login, however helpful they are.

What should a musician post on TikTok?

One idea per video, and every one of them about the song or about you. These are the kinds of video that give a viewer a reason to come back:

• The moment. The ten seconds of the song that made you want to release it: the line, the drop, the chorus. Show it, sing it, or play it somewhere real.
• The story behind one line. Who it's about, where you wrote it, what nearly made you cut it. TikTok built "Behind the Song" into the artist account for exactly this.
• The making of it. The voice note, the first rough demo, the moment in the session when it clicked. People like hearing a song arrive.
• Live. A clip from a gig, a rehearsal or a living-room set. It shows you play out, and it gives people a reason to look for the next date.
• With someone else. A video with another artist, a producer or a friend's band puts you in front of their audience. Collaboration is one of the routes that works best for the artists we see.
• A trend, when it fits the song. If a format is travelling and your song genuinely suits it, use it that week. If you have to bend the song to fit, skip it.

You don't need to find your on-camera self before you start. Kimberly, our founder, says brand is “fully about experimenting at the beginning”, and that holds here too, so don't overthink it. Post, watch which videos people actually save and share, and make more of those.

How often should you post, and for how long?

The few artists in our community who reported real jumps had kept a daily or scheduled habit going. Most people struggle to keep it up, and that's normal: day jobs, gigs and life get in the way.

So choose a pace you can hold for eight weeks before you judge it. Three videos a week you actually post beat a daily plan you drop after ten days. Record a batch in one afternoon, from one song, and post from that batch through the week.

Pick one short-video app and get it working before you add another. The same clips can go out on a second app once you've got a rhythm, and our video release sequence guide has a month of posts planned from one song.

Can you make a song go viral on TikTok?

Nobody can promise you that, and anyone who does is selling something. What you can do is raise the odds: post often enough that one video has a chance to travel, make each video about the strongest moment of the song, and make it easy for other people to use your sound.

It also helps to know what a viral clip can leave behind. In a few cases in our work, a single big clip left numbers that looked nothing like the artist's normal week and no lasting audience, with very few people they could reach afterwards. Our guide on why monthly listeners drop explains the fall-back after a spike. A few members have even had releases taken down or listeners removed after a genuine spike. Keep a dated note of what you posted and when, so you can show where the attention came from.

If a clip does take off, the two weeks after it matter more than the clip. Our guide on what to do when a song starts getting streams has the moves for those fourteen days.

How do you turn TikTok views into fans?

A view is someone passing by. A fan is someone you can reach next month. To close that gap:

• Put one sign-up link in your bio, and point to it from your videos. A free download, an unreleased version or the first news of a gig gives people a reason to give you a way to contact them.
• Reply to comments by name, and ask one question back. The people who answer a reply can become your first real fans.
• Tell them where you're playing. In our work, artists' lists grew mainly where someone collected names in the room at a gig. A video that says "I'm playing here on this date" turns viewers into a room.
• Watch followers, saves and shares, and treat views as weather. A video with fewer views and more saves did more for you.

The first 1,000 fans guide covers the sign-up and the list in full.

What should you not do on TikTok?

• Don't buy followers, likes or views. TikTok's community guidelines don't allow services that artificially boost engagement, and it says it removes fake likes, followers and other inflated numbers when it finds them. Videos that try to get people to inflate likes or follows aren't eligible for the For You feed either.
• Don't count on ads to build an audience. The few artists we've heard from who paid for ads on short-video apps mostly got views without lasting followers. Our paid promotion guide has a check to run before you spend anything.
• Don't switch to a business account without reading the rules. TikTok's business help pages say a business account only sees sounds from its Commercial Music Library, a separate library of tracks cleared for commercial use, and that businesses can't use the general music library for commercial use.
• Don't measure yourself by one video. Reach can drop to almost nothing without warning, and a few members have seen that happen. It's another reason the people on your list matter more than any single post.

The free artist development stage check takes a few minutes and tells you which stage you're at, so you know whether TikTok is the right place for your hours this month.

Where this fits

TikTok belongs to the support stage of artist development, the one about fans you can contact, and the pillar guide has all five stages. If a clip takes off, go to the guide on your first 1,000 listeners next; if you're planning a release, the video release sequence gives you a month of posts from one song.

• Artist development: what it is, what it costs, and how to tell it's working
• How to get your first 1,000 fans (not streams)
• Your song is getting streams: what to do in the next 14 days
• Why are my monthly listeners dropping?
• YouTube Shorts for emerging artists: the release sequence that works
• How to get your music heard as an independent artist
• Should you pay for music promotion? A decision rule
• How to get gigs as an independent artist: the first rooms
• Artist development stage checkfree tool

Questions artists ask