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Music Promotion

How To Promote Music On TikTok & Make Money From It

Photograph of the blog post author, Annika Hope

Annika Hope

11.5.2023

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TikTok as a social media platform is certainly one that you need to jump on board with if you haven’t already. There is so much scope right now in terms of music marketing strategies and promotion on TikTok. Being an active user creating content on the platform will help you promote music on TikTok I assure you! By trending on TikTok you can bring in a ton of followers and big names have been known to do this in the past. Just look at Doja Cat or Cardi B! TikTok can be the soundtrack to your summer, hey all the seasons, so if your music is played on TikTok, be ready to become a sensation. You just need a few people to follow you and share your beats and the world will know your name. Understanding the landscape of TikTok will grant you more exposure and more streams. 

What Is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-based social media platform where users can upload videos. Unlike YouTube, the Chinese-owned platform is geared towards short-form videos ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. 

As we know it today, content on TikTok is very broad. Dancing to trending sounds has a huge success rate and we know that trends come and go so quickly, so it is best to stay up-to-date as much with these as you can. For example, Taylor Swift’s lyrics “I’m the Problem, it’s Me” have set off a huge trend where people lip sync to the lyrics where you overlay describing a situation where you would admit that you are the problem. 

Music Marketing to Promote Music on TikTok 

From a music perspective, artists can share all kinds of content including new song ideas, behind-the-scenes footage, and live Q and A’s and you could do the same. This will also reinforce your image. TikTok is easy to use and as an artist, the fact that there are so many TikTok users daily wanting new content, there is endless possibility. 

Your TikTok content can really influence what the trends are of the day, week or month. TikTok is here to stay and at Music Gateway we can help you with your marketing and social media strategy when it comes to TikTok. Many artists have become extremely successful in the music industry by having their tracks featured in viral TikToks. That’s why we’ve extended our Music Promotional service to cover TikTok Promotion and Marketing as well!

We take your music and pitch to leading TikTok influencers across the world. As long as your music is licensed with TikTok, we can pitch to get your music included in unique influencer video content. Once you’ve sent us your music, we can target trends, design a brief and roll out your music to the masses.

Views on TikTok videos can reach way into the millions, and the resulting attention from that huge volume of interested people can translate into some pretty significant sales. TikTok’s penchant for dance-based challenges makes it extra tantalising to musicians for the royalties alone, as huge numbers of people can film themselves dancing along to your song on the platform.

TikTok As The Big League

We know the money side of things is important, but exposure and widening your fanbase is just as key to you being a successful artist in the industry, and that is where TikTok Promotion really comes into its own. 

TikTok is predicted to be the third-largest player in the social media world with 755 million monthly users in 2022. 

If you want to make your music go viral on TikTok, you will truly understand the benefit of a 15-second video. People love a snappy dance number and if they hear your song and want to use your audio to create a new video other people will like, then this is possible too. Essentially, TikTok’s algorithm creates a unique content feed for every user, which is a ‘For You Page’. The more interaction a user has with the social media platform, the #FYP will be tailored to their interests. So if you create a video which shows up on their feed, they will then be able to use your sound/music to create a new video themselves. Therefore, if they have a lot of followers, your music will be heard by many and your song will go viral on TikTok. What an easy process!  

It means that TikTok music promotion has a much greater potential for organic growth and increased views for content. The content on TikTok is all video and each piece of content fills the entire screen and the video is simply looped until the user scrolls on. So when you promote music on TikTok these are significant factors because it means that TikTok occupies much more of a user’s attention than its competitors. You can’t just scroll silently through to the next video like other social media platforms so it fully engages the viewer. 

Top Tips For Success In TikTok Music Marketing

  • Be your authentic self
  • Connect with other musicians
  • Hashtag wisely
  • Get your song pitched to influencers
  • Think laterally – you don’t have to follow the herd, you can think of innovative ways of standing out from the crowd
  • Stitch or duet with other artists

Biggest Hits On TikTok This Year

We are talking about the big leagues whose music is played on TikTok, and just like other social media platforms, music can be used as part of someone’s video with a top artist’s track laid over the top and there you have it, more streams. Here are just some examples of the songs that took the TikTok world by storm. 

  • Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) – Kate Bush
  • About Damn Time – Lizzo
  • As It Was – Harry Styles
  • Go (Higher & Faster) – Cat Burns
  • Don’t Stop – Olamide

If I Promote Music On TikTok Will I Make Money?

Royalties 

TikTok pays royalties in 2 ways; either as Performance royalties via a PRO or mechanical royalties. Publishers collect this money and then pay the songwriter a cut of that price. TikTok has deals in place with distributors and labels in order to license music for the app. Artists then receive royalties from having their music used on the platform.

Micro Audio 

This is the audio that is released on TikTok prior to a standard release, so users can choose which segment of the song to use. If you put up a snippet or raw recording of a track, then this will also make you money. The ISRC for these snippets is necessary to sell your individual tracks via online music distributors. If you need to find an ISRC Code quickly and easily, use the Music Gateway ISRC Finder Tool.

Full Audio 

The full audio is distributed by your publisher and a music distributor, whereby you can promote music on TikTok and collect your royalties. It can’t get any simpler than that.

SoundOn

With the announcement of a music marketing and distribution service called SoundOn, created earlier this year. TikTok will now allow musicians to upload songs directly to the app and receive royalties for plays, managed through a designated artists’ platform.  

Closing Thoughts on How To Promote Music On TikTok

It is clear that TikTok promotion is a great social network and a tool with a huge amount of potential for musicians. So take the time to understand the social media platform and see how the content you make can in turn make you some well-earned money.  


It’s also worth spending a little time with the Ads Manager resources as there are some really good tips and tricks there. Your distributor will collect revenue based on the use of your music, meaning you will get paid each time your song gets used in a video. Of course, here at Music Gateway, we can guide and help you with TikTok promotion every step of the way.

If you’re wondering, does promoting on TikTok work or how to promote music on TikTok effectively? Get in touch today! 


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