10 Tips on TikTok for musicians

From now on, you can promote your music on 4 social media platforms from the Y2M app: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook… and TikTok!

TikTok has become a really important social media in the music industry: challenges, trends, virality... So why not launch your advertising campaign now? Try it out on the Y2M app. ✌️

Here are 10 special tips you can use to complete your organic content on TikTok :

1. Investigate

Before to start with your TikTok account, take time to look around what other artists are posting. It can be silly to say that but you will be widespread in musicians TikTok codes, and see how they enhance their music and universe.

What kind of content they publish, does it work, which formats generate more views... Such questions you will need to ask yourself by observing other big artists, or the ones looking like you.

The idea is then to define your TikTok account objectives : fame, highlighting your live or studio sessions? You need to find out what story to tell, and how you want to tell it. And especially keep in mind to distinguish your TikTok content from other social platforms content (Instagram, Facebook...) to create exclusiveness, and convince to follow you on this social in addition to the others.

2. Take care of your profile

As other socials, it's important to get a clear and well informed profile, linked to your other socials (here Instagram and Youtube). It will permit to identify you better. If you can, keep the same exact name that you chose on your other socials.

Profile description : keep it short, and make understand easy which kind of music you do, and if you perform live for example.

What can work in your favor : choose well your miniatures, which will be your TikTok's window shop. You then provide yourself a graphic identity which fits you, at first sights when we get on your TikTok profile.

3. Publish short videos

Are short videos the best? Not necessarily!

They indeed improve views number. But there is not only one rule, we certainly know that 15 sec. (or less) videos will naturally generate 3 to 4 times more views than 1 min (or more) videos, as an example.

According to the content you want to highlight, keep in mind the shorter the better : a track extract, a mini live, lifestyle or comic videos...

This will favor likes, shares, video records, then diffusion to new audiences, and so on and so forth... Until a million views maybe?

Last tip here: don't share another social network video on TikTok, cause the platform automatically lower external videos' reach ;). If you already posted it elsewhere, take the original video and post it from TikTok.

4. Publish regularly (and don't forget stories!)

We know that 90% of TikTok users (800 millions of them worldwide) connect everyday on the app. You have the chance everyday to show your videos to new audiences, plus your actual ones.

No need to publish everyday, find your cadence and keep it all along the road on TikTok, which will favor your algorithm for next publications.

Try to keep a minimum of a video per week ;). And to fill the "holes", you can, like on Instagram, publish stories regularly (everyday?) according your news. This is important because stories permits to improve algorithm too. You can also take original videos from your Instagram stories and repost it on TikTok.

5. Find best time(s) to post

As other socials, some time-windows can give you larger audiences when you post:

• Working days between 8 and 10 AM, and around 6 PM
• Saturday just after midday (1 to 2 PM)
• Sunday in the evening (5 to 6 PM)

Here again, this is not an exact science, but after posting at different times you will be able to analyse when your audience is the most connected, and adjust your posting time to get more reach once your videos are online.

6. Use TikTok assets for your videos

TikTok is know for offering a large number of filters and video effects. The idea is to use them on your own videos (as long as it fits you), which will encourage your content exposure and reach.

7. Keep an eye on trends

Trends enable to use a music or a challenge notoriety to increase your visibility.

Musical artists do it less, but you can surf on a trend if you estimate it fits you and you will laugh about it first, without pushing yourself to publish it just because it is a trend.

Keep in mind that one of your songs, synchronized on a good looking video (danse or other catchy visual element) can become itself a trend and propel your visibility on lands you never explored ;). Which bring us to the next tip...

8. Share your (old and new) songs

You have two ways to put your music on a TikTok video :

1. By integrating the sound directly on the video before to post it (original sound)
2. By adding a sound to the video on TikTok from DSPs library (Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer...)

By using the second method, your get higher chances other creators will use your music to make their own videos, throwback to what we were telling on tip number 7 ;).

9. Make lives

What better way to show your talents if it is not a video ?

TikTok lives allow to reunite much users on a short time, and favor interactions with your videos and your account globally.

It is another way to post on the social that can help your algorithm on long term. Schedule recurrent lives to create a "rendez-vous" TikTok.

10. Importance of interactions

Last but not least, bring life to your account with other creators, by following accounts you like or which inspire you. Watch their content, interact, send DMs...

And make the same exercice in the opposite way with followers interacting with your videos. Answer to DMs and comments, because followers love feeling considered, like on all other socials. And the algorithm likes it too !