How to Get Your Music on TikTok | Your First Step to Viral Success

Alex Mitchell-Hardt -

TikTok is swiftly becoming the driving force of the music industry, impacting the listening habits of its whopping 800 million users. The app's influence on the billboard charts is undeniable.

"Toosie Slide" is the latest TikTok sensation turned chart-topper.

@javierr

I can dance like Michael Jack.....Son

♬ Toosie Slide - Drake

However, you don't have to be Drake to ride the TikTok wave. The sharpest independent artists continue to experience viral success on the platform, no matter their initial following size.

Arizona Zervas turned his TikTok success into over 600 million Spotify streams of "Roxanne" and a record deal with Columbia.

Videos from influencer Charli Damelio, along with 2 million other TikTokkers, have made Zervas into an overnight star.

@charlidamelio

people are staring i am uncomfy

♬ ROXANNE - Arizona Zervas

When you get the right TikTok influencers to use your music in their videos, your whole career can change and you can reach the ears of millions of listeners who may have previously been inaccessible.

So you may be wondering, where do I start? The answer is simple. Start by getting your music on TikTok. This is the first step before doing any promotion.

This post explains the basics of how to make sure your songs are available on TikTok using two methods.

Method #1: Use Your Distributor

All of the top distributors can now send your music directly to TikTok, the same way they send it to Spotify, Apple Music, and other DSPs. You should see an option to include TikTok when you are uploading your music to your distributor and selecting your stores. Most distributors will allow you to go back and enable this for previous releases as well.

Keep in mind, there's a good chance that your music is already on TikTok without you knowing it!

How do you check if your distributor has already sent your music to TikTok?

  1. Just open TikTok on your phone and search for your artist name + song name on the search bar. Then tap the “sounds” tab. If you see your song in there, this means your distributor has already sent your song to TikTok.
  2. From there, you can tap on your song and see what snippet your distributor selected - it will either be a 15, 30, or 60 second snippet. When you tap on a sound, you can see all videos that have been made using that sound. We recommend tapping the “favorite” button on your songs so that you can find them easily within the app.

Can I select the specific snippet that is sent to TikTok?

This depends on your distributor. Some offer this feature, while others will not give you any control over the snippet. Check with your distributor, or look for this feature on their platform. For example, Amuse and Distrokid let you pick your snippet, whereas Tunecore selects a random one minute snippet.

It goes without saying that selecting the best snippet is a crucial part of promoting a song on TikTok.

What are the benefits of using the TikTok sound through your distributor?

  1. Convenience. You don’t have to upload anything.
  2. The sound will automatically be named correctly and include your album art
  3. You get paid royalties every time your song is used on TikTok!

Method #2: Manually Upload Songs

This method requires a little more work, but not much. All you have to do is upload a video with your song as the audio, directly to your TikTok account.

Once you do this, TikTok will create a “sound” from the video. Once your video is uploaded, just tap on the sound, then edit the name of the sound to your artist name + song name.

What are the benefits of manually uploading a video with your song?

  1. This gives you an option of getting your music on TikTok if your distributor doesn’t have a distribution deal with the app.
  2. You get to select the snippet from the song that is used. You have complete control over selecting the portion of the song you want to feature. If your distributor doesn't allow you to select the snippet, you may choose this option just for the control.

Now that you know the process for getting your tracks on TikTok, it's time to execute. First check if your songs are already on TikTok. If they're not, use either method above and get them in there!

It's worth getting all of your songs in the app, the upside is huge and you want to arm the TikTok community with as many tunes as possible.

Got all of your music in there? Congrats, you've completed the first step in riding the TikTok wave.

Looking to Promote your Music?

Use our TikTok Music Promotion and Spotify Playlists Pitching service.

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