As the music industry continues to evolve and adapt to the digital era, musicians must ultimately stay ahead of the curve and embrace the fact that consumers now may see you as the individual, before they hear you as the musician.
AT THE EXPENSE OF ART
As our attention spans corkscrew to an all-time low pertaining to doom scrolling, although it’s not advocated by TikTok themselves, creators are often forced to shoehorn in a clutching eight-second video or create striking music from the outset to make that viral shot or to have any music consumers get a whiff of the music you’re making. Now, don’t get me wrong. Jumping on trends, producing ‘day-in-the-life’ shorts and having a strong online reputation is part of the game in a music artists’ developing – and already developed – journey. With this however, it can be argued that this often comes at the expense of the art itself. Which is the whole problem.
Producers or EDM-stylists shouldn’t have to cut 6-minute introductions and bend to the whims of the goldfish consumer at the expense of the art. TikTok urge you to be your authentic selves on their platform, but it’s often rare for your music to be heard any other way than jumping on the platform trends itself, slotting yourself in with the millions of other users expressing a lack of self-reliance and piggybacking off one’s idea.
At the heart of it, is an algorithm unlike anything we’ve seen before. As you begin to step out of the social wormhole, it’s a force to be reckoned with. So much so, it’s got Universal Music scared and running. Either bold in business or unable to accept the industry is changing, they clutch their rights close to their chest, eager to earn the last few pennies before it’s whipped away by the TikTok empire, a monstrous piece of work that is shaping all of music and our culture of arts. When new tech emerges, the copyright holders get worried. The dispute ultimately boiled down for ‘fair compensation for artists and songwriters’ as both multi-billion dollar corporations batted back and forth about underscoring artists, yada yada. When really, it’s all about their own driven greed and money driven at the expense of the little man – the artist. It boils down to which party will be most affected – and which can endure the most from the affects of it. Does music have such a massive impact on TikTok users that it will impact user growth? Or will this move hurt UMG artists and their affiliated artists more because TikTok is a major music discovery tool? Understanding the reliance of social media in the digital era and TikTok seemingly placing responsibility back onto the artist, I would punt for the latter right now.
TikTok’s own streaming service: SoundOn
Now, TikTok are launching on the frontal attack with their new SoundOn machine. The new piece of tech embraces a shift to the musicians taking control more directly. It not only allows artists to receive 100% royalty ownership on their songs but also uses the TikTok‘s creator marketing reaching a far wider audience. As artists begin colonising to TikTok where you yourself are in charge of your own brand, your own music and your own independence through an eco-system of e-commerce, the challenge is understanding just how impactful TikTok‘s music discovery is to the common music fan and if that results in the full step-by-step process of opportunity-of-listen to guaranteed-purchase-from-listen.
While SoundOn looks to be a major positive for the industry, the new tools also allow mastering and mixing to be done in-house on the app itself. Does this negate the need for music producers and studio engineers in an industry that is already flattening in size? Will this result in a damaging reliance on these roles?
The underlying issue is again, record companies and streaming platforms like Spotify drawing up negotiations for the financial benefit of the artists’, when they’re not even seated at the table. As this dispute unfolds – and many others like – how impactful will this be to the industry long-term? Will this reshape how we consume and distribute our music?
manvmusic.com 
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