MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a sequence during which we spotlight an information level that deserves the eye of the worldwide music trade. Stat Of the Week is supported by Cinq Music Group, a technology-driven report label, distribution, and rights administration firm.
TikTok is within the strategy of reinventing itself as each a accomplice to music firms, and a competitor to streaming and distribution providers.
Now, a brand new market evaluation sheds some gentle on why the ByteDance-owned quick video platform has targeted so intensely on increasing its providers within the music world, with the agency reporting to be a serious driver of music consumption and spending.
Whereas that won’t come as a shock to those that’ve famous the overlap between TikTok and music tradition, the numbers within the evaluation shine a light-weight on the size of TikTok’s affect.
In line with the evaluation, commissioned by TikTok and carried out by US market monitor Luminate, 62% of US TikTok customers pay for a music streaming service, in comparison with 43% of all shoppers.
To provide TikTok’s new report, which you’ll be able to learn in full right here, Luminate researchers studied information from the US, UK, Germany, Brazil and Indonesia, in addition to world information, for a 12-month interval from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, and located that “in comparison with common shoppers, TikTok customers are considerably extra prone to be music streamers”.
We all know that TikTok counted150 million customers in america as of February 2023, which signifies that, if we take a look at this stat by way of the lens of the Luminate evaluation, then at this level it seems that roughly 93 million TikTok customers within the US are paying for a subscription to one of many numerous streaming providers obtainable in america, together with Spotify, Apple Music and others.
To place into context the variety of music subscribers at particular person streaming providers out there, we reported in July that as of February, in america, Spotify counted44.4 million paying subscribers, whereas Spotify rival Apple Music had 32.6 million subscribers, and Amazon Music had29.3 million subscribers.
The brand new TikTok research checked out consumption information from Luminate Join, viewers perception from the Luminate Music 360 Examine, and TokTok engagement volumes supplied by the platform in 5 markets: the US, UK, Brazil, Indonesia, and Germany, in addition to globally (see under).
Together with each paid and ad-supported streaming providers, roughly 9 out of 10 TikTok customers in every market studied used a minimum of one music streaming service.
Within the US, 89% of TikTok customers subscribed to a minimum of one music streaming service, in comparison with 74% of total shoppers, whereas within the UK, 85% of TikTok customers had a streaming service account, in comparison with 62% of shoppers total.
“Within the world and US markets, TikTok person engagement metrics are strongly related to streaming volumes. In different phrases, larger TikTok engagement — whether or not that’s likes, views or shares — corresponds with elevated streaming volumes,” the Luminate report acknowledged.
Nevertheless, TikTok’s impression on music isn’t restricted to DSPs. The evaluation discovered that TikTok customers are additionally bigger spenders on music off-platform as effectively. By broad margins, they’re extra seemingly to purchase merch and attend stay exhibits than the typical client.
Within the US, 45% of TikTok customers purchased music-related merch over a 12-month interval, in comparison with 35% of total music listeners. In the meantime, 38% attended a stay music occasion throughout the yr, in comparison with 33% of total music listeners.
Total, US TikTok customers spent 22% extra on music-related purchases, in comparison with total music listeners. An analogous sample was discovered within the 4 different international locations they research checked out.
The research additionally discovered that the TikTok viewers may be an efficient advertising software for artists, as TikTok customers, specifically, are significantly extra prone to uncover and share music than total social media and quick video platform (SFV) customers.
Within the UK, TikTok customers had been 108% extra prone to uncover and share music than different social media customers, whereas in Germany, they had been 100% extra seemingly. US TikTok customers had been 71% extra prone to uncover and share music.
“In doing so, TikTok customers assist each rising and established artists to achieve new audiences,” the Luminate report acknowledged.
The research discovered that TikTok’s platform seems to be a serious driver of the glocalization of music – the development of native artists, performing in native languages, being elevated to a regional or world platform.
“TikTok customers have a stronger choice for worldwide music than the typical music listener,” the report mentioned. “This choice, mixed with the excessive quantity of music discovery and sharing exercise on TikTok, may be harnessed to develop a fanbase with out borders and has helped to launch world artists from genres akin to Reggaeton, Afrobeats and Okay-Pop.”
The report added: “TikTok customers‘ curiosity in worldwide music is obvious of their music streaming preferences. In comparison with the typical music listener throughout every market, this viewers is extra prone to point out that ‘entry to music by world artists’ is an especially essential issue when choosing a music streaming service.”
“TikTok is already well-known for being the launchpad for creating viral hits and breaking new artists, however we wished to grasp how TikTok and its customers impression the music trade extra broadly,” Ole Obermann, TikTok’s International Head of Music, mentioned in a press release.
“Luminate’s findings show what we had lengthy identified: that TikTok is the driving drive behind music discovery within the trade, and that TikTok customers are lively, engaged and extremely helpful drivers of music trade revenues.”
The brand new research is a part of an ongoing effort by TikTok to spotlight its rising function within the improvement of worldwide music tradition. Final yr, TikTok launched a report asserting that 13 out of the 14 songs to achieve quantity on the US Billboard Scorching 100 in 2022 had been pushed by viral developments on TikTok.
The information clearly exhibits why TikTok has targeted so closely on creating music-related providers, to the purpose that one may very well be forgiven for considering the corporate plans to reinvent itself as part of the music trade.
“Luminate’s findings show what we had lengthy identified: that TikTok is the driving drive behind music discovery within the trade, and that TikTok customers are lively, engaged and extremely helpful drivers of music trade revenues.”
It rapidly expanded the service to Australia, Mexico and Singapore, although with out Common’s catalog.
This previous October, TikTok introduced it will be holding its first-ever stay music occasion, dubbed “TikTok In The Combine.”
The identical month, it struck a take care of Distrokid to have indie artists add their music to TikTok Music and to Capcut, TikTok’s video modifying software program, in addition to to TikTok’s Industrial Music Library, which gives a catalog of music for manufacturers to make use of of their TikTok adverts.
In the meantime, TikTok mother or father ByteDance has launched an AI music-making app, and most lately, TikTok unveiled the “Add to Music App” function, which permits TikTok customers to save lots of music they’ve found on to their Apple Music, Amazon Music (Prime or Limitless) or Spotify accounts.
These new partnerships point out that TikTok is transferring away from what at instances seemed to be a making an attempt relationship with the music trade. In a single notable incident, TikTok disabled using copyrighted music for customers in Australia, in what the platform described as an experiment, and what many observers noticed as a hardball tactic in its licensing negotiations with music rights holders.
One remaining – and main – potential pitfall for TikTok has to do with the rise in tensions between China and Western international locations.
Amid issues that mother or father firm ByteDance could also be sharing TikTok person information with the Chinese language authorities, quite a few governments – from the US to the European Union to Australia – have banned the app from government-issued gadgets.
A small variety of jurisdictions have banned or try to ban TikTok altogether, together with Montana and, most lately, Nepal.
