TikTok’s capacity to make songs go viral has music marketers and record companies enthralled. They frequently pay influencers to incorporate a tune in their videos in the hopes of it becoming popular. On an app that is still in the early stages of adding monetization tools, the practice provides an essential source of income for TikTokers.
Jesse Callahan, the founder of the upstart marketing firm Montford Agency, said –
“Music marketing on TikTok is huge. It’s a big way that labels have brought artists into the spotlight the last couple of years. It’s also a big way that creators have made a lot of money.”
According to Callahan, influencers he works with charge between $200 and $300 per million followers so that a creator having 5 million followers could potentially earn between $1,000 and $1,500 for song promotion.
He added that this depends on the level of engagement as there are many content creators on TikTok who have half a million followers but still manage to engage more audience than those with over 5 million followers.
Nicole, Natalie, and Nika Taylor, TikTok triplets who sing in the Taylor Red music act, joined TikTok in March 2020 after live concerts were halted due to the coronavirus outbreak. Their TikTok account went viral, gaining 8.6 million followers in just over a year.
To begin making money, the band turned to song promotion, creating an account on the freelancer portal Fiverr to interact with musicians and marketers. On Fiverr, the group charges $750 for a single video, $1,400 for two videos, and $2,000 for three music videos.
Natalie says –
“We’ve done all kinds of song promotions for all kinds of artists. We’re a country band, but we’ve done promotions for rap, hip hop, pop, pretty much every genre out there.”
According to Devain Doolaramani, the founder of the talent management and marketing organization, The Fuel Injector, there are still prospects for creators with fewer than a million followers to earn hundreds of dollars.
He said that a creator with 200,000 to 300,000 followers who receives 20,000 to 30,000 likes on a video can make $200 for a song promotion.
Griffin Haddrill of the marketing agency VRTCL, said –
“When you’re looking at the top 10, top 20, top 30 creators on the app, I
would say be prepared to spend anywhere from $8,000 to $50,000 for a post.”