The possibilities are endless on TikTok, and that’s a problem for the music industry.

With the music app Musical.ly shutting down back in 2018, TikTok was a result of combining the two apps together for a more complete experience. Nonetheless, both apps have always been heavily reliant on music, and with 1 billion active users on TikTok as of 2022, music trends have been coming and going faster than artists and musicians can keep up with.

TikTok has created a fast and easy way for users to consume more content than ever. As a result of a fast moving industry, new music trends appear every week, and now anyone is able to get massive amounts of exposure towards their music if it goes viral on TikTok.

According to TikTok’s yearly music report, “Over 175 songs that trended on TikTok in 2021 charted on the Billboard Hot 100, twice as many as last year.” These statistics are proof of TikTok’s control over the kind of music that is being pushed towards consumers.

Artists and labels have also taken note of TikTok’s influence among its users and consumers and are trying to modify their music to appeal to these 15 to 30 second videos. In their article that addresses these changes that musicians have had to face in order to either stay or become relevant, NPR states, “There’s a cottage industry dedicated to marketing a song or artist on TikTok — paying influencers to promote a song, posting short clips to see what people respond to, trying to get a dance challenge going.”

Regardless, TikTok and other social media are growing day by day and the real question is: will the music industry be able to keep up with the ever changing media, or will it fall short to the advancing industry?