Top Ways for Musicians to Monetize Their Music in 2022
New media-focused methods, from TikTok campaigns to music NFTs, that will help you go viral and build a community without a label.
Photo Source: Soundtrap on Unsplash
If you’ve been on TikTok in the past few months, you’ve probably heard a clip of Noah Kahan’s breakout song, “Stick Season.” While many musicians still use social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter to share their work, TikTok is increasingly becoming the place to be for any up-and-coming artist.
Artists including Kahan, Tai Verdes and Benee have risen to stardom after one of their songs caught fire on the app. Verdes’ song “Stuck in the Middle” went viral on TikTok in 2020, and it has now been streamed more than 100 million times on Spotify. As a result, Verdes has a record deal, debut album and nationwide tour, according to NPR. “Supalonely” by Benee also found its audience on TikTok, appearing in more than 5.7 million videos, and has since gone platinum in eight countries as well as receiving 2.1 billion streams across all platforms, according to CNBC.
So, if you’re a singer, songwriter, or musician looking to get your work out there, here are some tips on how to make your song the next viral hit.
1. Hire a micro-influencer (or a few, depending on your budget) to promote your song
For big time artists, marketers hire influencers to promote their songs, which helps to spark user generated content from fans. You don’t need to blow all your money hiring major influencers such as the D'Amelios because the TikTok algorithm makes it possible for any video to blow up. Try hiring a micro-influencer that connects with users in your target niche instead. You can do this by using apps such as Zebr, which allows artists to pay creators to promote songs in their content.
2. Create campaigns with non-influencer accounts
Videos of travel, recipes and more blow up on TikTok. Having your song played in the background could be the ticket to catching an audience’s attention.
3. Host private listening sessions with influencers
Big and small artists alike have begun hosting private listening sessions with select influencers prior to a song’s release, which helps the artist gain insight on which parts of their song are most likely to go viral.
4. Bonus: Create and sell music NFTs
If you don’t know how NFTs work, they are a unique token linked to the seller’s product. In this case, a unique piece of music that becomes unchangeable once attached to a blockchain. NFTs are making their way into the music industry, and getting involved now could lead to a big payoff later.
If Verdes’ and Benee’s accolades don’t have you convinced that TikTok is the place to be right now, let's have a look at some of the data. According to Business Insider, a study done for TikTok by MRC Data, a music analytics company, showed that 67 percent of the app's users are more likely to look for a song on a music streaming service after hearing it on TikTok. In fact, according to TikTok’s annual music report, over 175 trending songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021.
Outside of the marketing arena, labels are scrambling to sign an artist after their song goes viral, but this new music economy has made it possible for many artists to succeed without a label. It seems as though fan-based subscriptions and artist tipping, which builds a community where artists are more directly supported by their fans, might become the norm in the near future. According to Rolling Stone, Square, the parent company of CashApp, recently acquired Tidal, a subscription-based streaming service, which opens the door for the already reputable company to become a major name in the evolving music industry.
Our final note on finding success in the creator economy is understanding the difference between finding an audience and building a community around your work. Kahan has developed a community on TikTok through his fans’ interpretations of his music. He frequently responds to user created/co-created covers of “Stick Season” with the lyrics reimagined from the female perspective.
While an audience is a one or two way relationship between fans and an artist, communities involve multi directional relationships and a sense of shared purpose or identity. The benefit of creating a community is that they will self-engage with your content, while audiences need their attention held. As we have seen, TikTok users heavily interact with music they find on the app, often responding with creative videos that may become the next major trend.
We hope that this quick guide provides a good overview of how the music industry is transforming and becoming increasingly reliant on the creator economy. Up next, we’ll take a look at how the creator economy and NFTs are changing the game for other types of artists, small business owners in particular…
Best,
Nina for the Don’t Count Us Out Yet Team
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