MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a collection wherein 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 file label, distribution, and rights administration firm.
TikTok is within the means of reinventing itself as each a associate to music corporations, and a competitor to streaming and distribution providers.
Now, a brand new market evaluation sheds some gentle on why the ByteDance-owned brief 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 lightweight on the dimensions of TikTok’s affect.
In accordance 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 customers.
To supply TikTok’s new report, which you’ll read in full 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 customers, TikTok customers are considerably extra more likely to be music streamers”.
We all know that TikTok counted150 million customers in america as of February 2023, which implies that, if we have a look at this stat via 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 varied streaming providers accessible in america, together with Spotify, Apple Music and others.
To place into context the variety of music subscribers at particular person streaming providers available in the market, 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 examine checked out consumption information from Luminate Join, viewers perception from the Luminate Music 360 Examine, and TikTok 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 not less than one music streaming service.
Within the US, 89% of TikTok customers subscribed to not less than one music streaming service, in comparison with 74% of total customers, whereas within the UK, 85% of TikTok customers had a streaming service account, in comparison with 62% of customers total.
“Within the world and US markets, TikTok consumer engagement metrics are strongly related to streaming volumes. In different phrases, greater 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 properly. By vast margins, they’re extra possible to purchase merch and attend dwell exhibits than the common 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 dwell music occasion in the course of the 12 months, 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 identical sample was discovered within the 4 different nations they examine checked out.
The examine additionally discovered that the TikTok viewers may be an efficient advertising instrument for artists, as TikTok customers, specifically, are significantly extra more likely to uncover and share music than total social media and brief video platform (SFV) customers.
Within the UK, TikTok customers had been 108% extra more likely to uncover and share music than different social media customers, whereas in Germany, they had been 100% extra possible. US TikTok customers had been 71% extra more likely to uncover and share music.
“In doing so, TikTok customers assist each rising and established artists to succeed in new audiences,” the Luminate report acknowledged.
The examine 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 desire for worldwide music than the common music listener,” the report stated. “This desire, 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 comparable to Reggaeton, Afrobeats and Ok-Pop.”
The report added: “TikTok customers‘ curiosity in worldwide music is obvious of their music streaming preferences. In comparison with the common music listener throughout every market, this viewers is extra more likely to point out that ‘entry to music by world artists’ is an especially vital issue when deciding on a music streaming service.”
“TikTok is already well-known for being the launchpad for creating viral hits and breaking new artists, however we needed to grasp how TikTok and its customers impression the music trade extra broadly,” Ole Obermann, TikTok’s International Head of Music, stated in a press release.
“Luminate’s findings show what we had lengthy identified: that TikTok is the driving pressure behind music discovery within the trade, and that TikTok customers are energetic, engaged and extremely worthwhile drivers of music trade revenues.”
The brand new examine is a part of an ongoing effort by TikTok to spotlight its rising position within the improvement of worldwide music tradition. Final 12 months, TikTok released a report asserting that 13 out of the 14 songs to succeed in quantity on the US Billboard Sizzling 100 in 2022 had been pushed by viral tendencies on TikTok.
The info clearly exhibits why TikTok has targeted so closely on growing music-related providers, to the purpose that one might 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 pressure behind music discovery within the trade, and that TikTok customers are energetic, engaged and extremely worthwhile 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 announced it could be holding its first-ever dwell music occasion, dubbed “TikTok In The Combine.”
The identical month, it struck a deal with 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 Business Music Library, which affords a catalog of music for manufacturers to make use of of their TikTok advertisements.
In the meantime, TikTok guardian ByteDance has launched an AI music-making app, and most just lately, TikTok unveiled the “Add to Music App” function, which allows 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 occasions seemed to be a making an attempt relationship with the music trade. In a single notable incident, TikTok disabled the use of 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 nations.
Amid considerations that guardian firm ByteDance could also be sharing TikTok consumer 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 units.
A small variety of jurisdictions have banned or are trying to ban TikTok altogether, together with Montana and, most just lately, Nepal.
