The Final Days of TikTok?: Analyzing Its Impact on Music
by Luke Modugno
The music industry has and always will be guided by the everchanging, rapid nature of technological advancement. From vinyl records to cassettes, Walkman’s to CDs and iTunes to Spotify, technological innovation has informed the way we consume, explore and digest music for centuries. In the age of all-encompassing social media, the industry has had to deal with a change far less tangible than physical technology.
Since Tiktok burst into epidemic popularity in the late 2010’s, its short form content and wildly addictive algorithm have indefinitely altered the way we consume media. In light of the possibility of an impending ban of the app, lets examine the indelible marks its left on the music industry thus far.
Perhaps the most poignant and noticeable affect TikTok and the entirety of social media has had on us is its erosion of attention span. “In 2004, we measured the average attention on a screen to be 2.5 minutes,” writes Dr. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at UC Irvine and author of the 2023 book “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity.” “Some years later, we found attention spans to be about 75 seconds. Now we find people can only pay attention to one screen for an average of 47 seconds.”
The erosion of our attention span can be directly linked to the arrival of TikTok. An endless series of visual and audible stimuli, TikTok provides a whiplash of shortform content fully tailored to the user. Coincidentally, the average length of a TikTok clocks in at 21-34 seconds, making it a prime culprit in our diminishing attention spans. Extrapolating the issue out to various industries, its no mistake that the music industry is the business to be affected the most significantly.
Considering the fact most albums are longer than 21-34 seconds, music executives have had to adapt their hastily shifting market. Seldom do you see a cohesive record release nowadays that exceeds an hour in length. President of Top Dawg Entertainment, Terrence “Punch” Henderson recently popped a relevant question to his followers on Twitter. “Are albums losing value? Or am I not thinking progressively enough?”
The answer to Punch’s question isn’t difficult to find. As with all industries, consumer sentiment drives revenue, in turn directing the trends of product. So considering both the degradation of our attention spans and the fixation on having a set powerful and distinct stimuli at our finger tips, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that playlists are now officially more popular than albums. According to the Music Business Association, playlists account for 31% of listening time across all demographics, while albums came in at 22%. The fascination and value placed on with an ordered, coherent full-length LP has clearly faded.
Not only has TikTok affected the way we consume music, it’s also affecting the medium in which we consume it. Spotify recently announced a revamped version of their home screen, featuring a vertically scrolling home screen. Sound familiar? Comparably to TikTok, the new home screen update favors discoverability, exposure and quick dopamine hits. It’s no secret that all these repercussions are diminishing the artistic value of music, further commoditizing the art form.
Most new artists aren’t as interested in crafting a cohesive story, sonic direction or consistent artistic presence. Instead, the prevailing approach to music seems to be throwing as much shit on the wall and seeing what sticks, Certified Lover Boy style. Furthermore, why pour countless hours, musical exertion and bother for public discourse to move past your album in no more than a week? Take Kendrick Lamar’s 2022 effort Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers for example. Fans of the Compton emcee waited 5 long years for this moment, only for it to not even crack into the top 50 of the Billboard 200 only 6 months following its release. Here’s the real kicker: both DAMN. (#41) and good kid, m.A.A.d city (#35) are performing better than Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers (#80) on charts this week. Why? Because both DAMN. (“PRIDE.”) and good kid, m.A.A.d city (“Money Trees”) have viral TikTok songs that accrue new streams and visibility daily, while Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers never really had such a song.
But in order to properly evaluate the overall effect TikTok has had on the music industry, we need to need to look at both sides of the story. Despite the fact that TikTok has discouraged many of the poignant and coveted aspects of music, it has been an undoubtedly positive force for the discovery of new artists, as well as expansion of musical taste.
Artists such as Yeat, Lil Nas X, 24kGoldn and countless others have TikTok to thank for the meteoric rise of their respective careers. Like other social media platforms, TikTok acts as a open forum for sharing new tracks, artists and music you’d otherwise never discover. Combined with the app’s faultless algorithm, TikTok is considerably adept at recognizing the type of music you may enjoy and exposing you to it.
Songs that are years old have soared to the top of the charts to new heights solely due to TikTok trends. Fleetwood Mac’s “Dream” has had a total rebirth, going viral on the app. Bruno Mars’ “Talking to the Moon” has had an encore as well. While the revenue split for artists on the app isn’t ideal (70/30), it’s hard to conceive of a more effective marketing tool for artists to utilize.
In the same vein as countless other social media platforms, TikTok and the impact it has on humanity and human art is and always will be in the eye of the beholder. If TikTok is ultimately banned by the government or not, its impact on the world of music will be felt for years, as the music it exposed us to, careers it produced and artistic lives it impacted will last a lifetime.
Luke Modugno is the editor-in-chief.
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