How TikTok Changes Music Industry
Analyzing Music Trends and Copyright Infringements
Why Did I Choose this Topic?
TikTok allows people to become famous in a 15 second video.
It is profoundly affecting the creators, streamers, record companies, and listeners.
As more people in the industry pays attention to the platform, it is necessary to analyze the effects of it to the music industry because it is changing people's way of consuming music.
From the graph, we can see that the number of active users on TikTok has been continuously increasing throughout recent years.
TikTok saw a significant increase in popularity during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the United States - Statista
There are 1.46 million monthly active users worldwide on TikTok for Q2 2022.
Song features on "Billboard Hot 100" changes over time.
Source: Billboard Hot 100 from Data World.
Danceability - Higher value means easier to dance to the song
The danceability of a song stays the same throughout history and is gradually increasing in the nearest decade. TikTok did not change much on the danceability.
Duration - Length of the song measured in ms.
The duration of a song is decreasing in recent years.
According to statistics from Quartz, from 2013 to 2018, the average length of the Billboard Hot 100 hits dropped by 20 seconds, and the emergence of TikTok has greatly accelerated this trend.
Valence - Higher value means the mood of song is more positive.
The mood of a song is gradually decreasing over time, but has become more positive in recent 3 years with the launch of TikTok.
Loudness (in dB) - Higher value means the song is louder
Music is becoming louder throughout the years.
After the launch of TikTok, the loudness begins to decrease.
Acousticness - Higher value means the song is more acoustic.
Songs are becoming less acoustic, and are increasing a little in the recent three years with the launch of TikTok.
Energy- higher value means the song is more energetic.
Songs are becoming more energetic overall, but are decreasing in the nearest decade.
After TikTok launches, the energy stays about the same, and decreases in the past two years.
These line graphs shows the changes of different song features for popular songs on TikTok, Spotify, and Billboard.
Data: TikTok 2019, 2020, 2021, Billboard Hot 100 , Spotify 2010-2019, 2020-2021
Valence - Higher value means the mood of song is more positive.
The valence of the songs on TikTok is showing a inverted bell curve, while the other two platforms shows a increase.
Loudness (in dB) - Higher value means the song is louder
The loudness of TikTok songs shows an increase from -7.4db in 2019 to -5.9db in 2021.
Danceability - Higher value means easier to dance to the song
There is a decrease in danceability for all three platforms.
Energy - Higher value means the song is more energetic.
The energy for songs on TikTok increased a lot from 2020 to 2021. For songs on Spotify, it did not change much. For Billboard, the energy has decreased from 2020 to 2021.
Liveness - Higher value means there are audiences involved
The liveliness for all three platforms shows a inverted bell-shaped curve.
Duration - Length of the song measured in ms.
The duration of popular songs on Spotify did not change much, while TikTok increases and Billboard has an inverted bell-shape.
Does TikTok have a policy that deal with music copyrights?
"TikTok’ signs agreements with major labels allow them to have music within the app available to end-users... and TikTok will remove videos that contains music outside of their library unless they have the creator’s authorization. "
- Marco Alexis, "TikTok Music Copyright: Explained"
Call to Action - Companies & Music Creators
Record Labels are arranging the release of songs by platform hotspots and trends, strive for creating TikTok contents.
Companies and individual artists can analyze trends to make their songs more feasible on TikTok, but if everyone is doing what data tells them to do, they would end up creating similar music and the diversity of music will decrease, which is not great for the creative environment.
Call to Action - TikTok Users
Make sure you don't break the platform's rule on intellectual properties by:
1. Only use music from the music library within the app
2. Be careful of uploading a song unless you have authorization
3. Avoid recording music playing in the background
Let's create with respect and joy!
Articles
Alexis, M. (2022, May 23). Tiktok Music copyright: Explained. Two Story Melody. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://twostorymelody.com/tiktok-music-copyright/
Kopf, D. (2019, January 17). The economics of streaming is making songs shorter. Quartz. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://qz.com/1519823/is-spotify-making-songs-shorter
Manning, R. (2022, July 28). The Tiktok Effect: Why record labels are forcing their artists to make viral tiktoks Raenelle. IP Osgoode. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://www.iposgoode.ca/2022/07/the-tiktok-effect-why-record-labels-are-forcing-their-artists-to-make-viral-tiktoks/
Quartz. (n.d.). How Tiktok is Changing Music. Quartz. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://qz.com/guide/how-tiktok-is-changing-music/
TikTok. (2019, August 16). Year on tiktok 2021 music report. Newsroom. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/year-on-tiktok-music-report-2021
Venkat, M. (2022, May 22). TikTok has changed music - and the industry is hustling to catch up. NPR. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/22/1080632810/tiktok-music-industry-gayle-abcdefu-sia-tai-verdes-celine-dion
Whateley, D. (n.d.). How Tiktok is changing the music industry. Business Insider. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-tiktok-is-changing-the-music-industry-marketing-discovery-2021-7
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