TikTok Music Promotion: Common Mistakes and Pitfalls To Avoid
Sure getting a few thousand people to use your song in their TikTok is great but how will they find you? What about your upcoming single you want to get out to people on TikTok that used your other songs previously?
Failing to select a GREAT clip from your song.
It is extremely important to accurately set your custom clip for your sound on TikTok. Your distributor will more than likely upload your song to TikTok with the song starting from the beginning by default. If the wrong clip of your song is uploaded, or the 15 second clip is just the very beginning of your song, the chances of anyone using your song will drastically decrease. Of all the viral songs that have come through TikTok, none of them start from the beginning of the song. Most distributors and labels now let you (the artist) choose what clip you want used. This is usually a dynamic or catchy part of the song. Make sure to ask your label or distributor what clip they are sending to TikTok prior to finalizing your release.
Not being part of the TikTok community.
Sure getting a few thousand people to use your song in their TikTok is great but how will they find you? What about your upcoming single you want to get out to people on TikTok that used your other songs previously? We see this alot: artists creating TikTok’s then introducing themselves and claiming their song! This is a good and active thing to do but it is much better if you can get out in front of people, instead of creating content to track them down. See the “back it up artist” Cookie Kawaii trying desperately to claim recognition for her song:
@cookieekawaii Stream more of my music, just search Cookiee Kawaii 🍪 ##fyp ##jerseyclubmusic ##cookieekawaii ##watchmethrowitback
♬ Vibe (If I Back It Up) - Cookiee Kawaii
Lack of creative direction for why people should use your song in their TikTok.
TikTok is all about the trends. People see someone doing something that looks fun or cool and they simply replicate it. Bigger TikTokers are always taking ideas from smaller creators to find and start new trends. If people are going to use your song they need a “why”. If you are going to get people to use your sound, there needs to be a clear action item that all creators are doing while using your song.
Paying one large influencer to create a TikTok with your sound.
Using your marketing budget to pay one large TikTok user is a huge mistake. You might as well go to a casino and bet all of your money on your first hand. TikTok moves very fast and most good TikTok accounts are creating 3-4 TikTok posts per day. There are sounds used once by Charlie D'amelio (the biggest account on TikTok) that don’t go viral and are often quickly forgotten. The reason the majors pay them $50,000 is to use their sound multiple times over and over again - an option that very few artists can afford. It's better to use your budget to target multiple micro-influencers with the chance of the song upstreaming to larger TikTokers. More irons in the fire, more chances of blowing up your song on TikTok.
Lack of strategy to deliver your song to relevant TikTok influencers.
Getting your music to relevant, vetted TikTok users that won't give you the runaround is very tough. From experience when we first started testing our Playlist Push TikTok Campaigns, we got taken advantage of multiple times. Creators using the sound getting paid then instantly deleting it. These users were uploading a lame screenshot instead of sticking to the creative brief and believing in the artist and their sound. We have since put systems in place that actually let artists decide if the TikTokers video should be approved (they get paid) or rejected (they don't get paid).
Some up to date stats on Playlist Push TikTok Campaigns
TikTok Creators 3,512
Total Posts 14,479
Posts Views 924 Million
Want to promote your song on TikTok? Learn more about our campaigns here.
