Music Marketing

Do TikTok views lead to Spotify streams? Six things every artist needs to know

Alex Mitchell-Hardt

Oct 30, 2020 — 3 min read

This is a very common question these days. For many artists, the answer has been yes. In fact, for some acts, success on TikTok has translated to breakout careers, chart topping singles, and record deals.

However, creating crossover success from TikTok into Spotify is not a perfect science. It’s quite challenging to predict and even harder to track.

In this article, we’ll share some of the strongest evidence to support the TikTok & Spotify connection, the current state of tracking & analytics, and tips for converting your TikTok viewers into Spotify listeners.

1) There’s an abundance of examples showing that TikTok impacts streaming

There's a growing list of unknown artists and forgotten songs that have translated their TikTok presence to breakout success on Spotify.

Major Labels continue to make large investments in TikTok promotion for established acts in an effort to climb the charts. The results seem to prove that it's working.

“Major labels are also flooding the platform with money, hoping to harness its power for their own purposes.” - Rolling Stone
“TikTok took over this week's Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, showing how the app is becoming part of the music industry” - Billboard

Smaller Indie Artists are generating substantial streaming growth from TikTok. Proof that success from TikTok comes in different sizes and can work for artists of all types (and budgets).

Producer Ricky Desktop has grown to 1.5 Million Monthly Listeners on Spotify - credited largely to his viral success on TikTok
Indie artist LoveClub went from 2,000 monthly listeners to over 32,000 on Spotify all from organic TikTok videos that required no budget.
“An Unknown Singer-Songwriter's Song Blew Up On TikTok, Now She's #2 On The Music Charts”

2) Tracking TikTok to Spotify behavior is challenging

A fundamental issue here is the lack of tracking between the two platforms. There is no perfect way to determine exactly how your TikTok views are impacting Spotify streams.

Currently, TikTok and Spotify are completely separate platforms and they don’t appear to share any data. TikTok will not even let a user click directly from TikTok to Spotify if they come across a song they like.

This means if a TikTok user finds a song they like they must open up Spotify and then search for the song. The artist has no way to tell exactly how many people are doing this.

As a result, the best option you have as an artist is to track the correlation between TikTok views and Spotify plays. For example, if you see a spike in TikTok views for your song, and then a spike in Spotify plays around the same time - you can likely attribute the bump in plays to TikTok.

This case study is an example of how the analytics currently rely on correlation versus precise tracking.

3) TikTok is simply unpredictable

So much of TikTok is unpredictable. You can’t always predict which songs will work, what will trend, or which videos TikTok’s algorithm will bless with viral glory. You also can’t predict if your success on TikTok will automatically convert to listeners and fans on streaming.

However, there are many strategies you can employ to set yourself up for success - giving you the best chance to benefit from the platform.

4) Tips for Converting your TikTok viewers to Spotify listeners

You MUST pick the catchiest part of your song to feature
Create a trend that is memorable and related to the song
Amplify your top videos
Put Spotify links in your TikTok Bio (If you have this feature enabled)
Comment on top videos

5) TikTok should not be viewed strictly as a platform for driving streams

At it’s core, it’s really a content creation platform. If Spotify streams are your goal, we still recommend focusing on getting on playlists as the most reliable way to build. However, TikTok has enormous upside, as it does provide the opportunity to go viral.

6) Becoming great at promoting your music on TikTok takes practice

Get familiar with the platform, learn what types of content work best, and test, test, test. Often you’ll need to try a few different times before you figure out what songs work best, which snippet to choose, and how to generate a concept that resonates on the platform.