As TikTok Ban Looms Again, Record Labels ‘Need to Be Prepared’
Days then a panel of federal judges voted to conserve a unused legislation that might restrain TikTok in the US starting on Jan. 19, the isolated label Artist Spouse Team (APG) began assessing how that may probably affect its advertising campaigns — and the way the corporate will have to alter.
“It’s hard to imagine a reality where TikTok actually goes down,” says Alec Henderon, head of virtual at APG. “But we need to be prepared. We are doing video shoots ahead of time, so if it does go, we have top-tier content hitting other short-form video platforms very quickly.”
J.D. Tuminski, former virtual advertising govern at Def Jam and founding father of Casadei Collective Advertising and marketing Company, could also be advising shoppers to be able. “If folks are being smart right now,” he says, “they’re already putting plans in place for other platforms and thinking about alternative marketing strategies.”
A minimum of maximum track entrepreneurs had been unwell this highway prior to. President Trump attempted to restrain TikTok in 2020 however used to be prohibited through the courts. “We’ve had this conversation internally so many times,” sighs Rafael Rocha, CEO of the promoting company NuWave Virtual. “If I was a betting man, I would bet confidently that it will not get banned.”
Or possibly now not restrained for lengthy. President Trump returns to workplace on Jan. 20, and not too long ago he has gave the impression extra aspiring about TikTok, saying he had “a warm spot in my heart” for the app. As well as, on Wednesday (Dec. 18), the Ultimate Courtroom agreed to listen to TikTok’s problem to the legislation that might restrain it within the U.S. TikTok’s stance is {that a} restrain would govern to “massive and unprecedented censorship of over 170 million Americans.”
Entrepreneurs are seeking to get ready for the app’s doable disappearance nevertheless. No person desires to be stuck flat-footed, particularly as a result of TikTok has “become such a large part of our execution when music is released and for teasing new music,” says Allison Laughter, vice chairman of virtual, advertising and streaming for Purple Shiny Control. If the app had been outlawed within the U.S., it could “hurt us in the short run for sure.”
The ache would most definitely be felt extra acutely through emerging artists who don’t but have title reputation. “Where is new artist discovery happening in 2025 if this app completely disappears?” asks Johnny Cloherty, co-founder of the virtual advertising corporate Songfluencer. “There is new artist discovery on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts — it just doesn’t happen on the same scale as it does on TikTok.”
Some genres which might be achieving a unused target audience in a foreign country may also be extra prone if TikTok virtue is illegitimate. “Country music is bigger than it’s ever been, and we’re seeing more global success than we ever have,” Laughter provides. “It would be a shame to have an international platform taken away from us at a moment when we really have leverage with country acts. It’s slowing down a rocket ship while it’s hot for us.”
Many executives were given some follow grappling with a TikTok-less life previous this past. On Feb. 1, Common Song Team’s trade in with the platform expired, and all its artists’ track used to be pulled from the app. A past nearest, many songs from alternative labels that featured contributions from Common Song Publishing Team writers had been got rid of as neatly.
“That was a wake up call for a lot of people,” says Dan Roy Carter, a former TikTok worker who not too long ago introduced Carter Tasks, his personal track advertising corporate. “That made people look at other platforms [outside of TikTok] and realize they have to develop them.”
However maximum entrepreneurs didn’t to find that alternative short-form video platforms may just fill the void left through TikTok’s absence. “Anyone I’ve spoken to who tried to pivot to another platform during that time frame generally didn’t find anything that was comparable straight away,” Carter says. That used to be without a doubt Laughter’s revel in: “I don’t think that we found the sweet spot of how to mimic the success or reach we might see on TikTok with any other platform.”
If the TikTok restrain did progress thru within the U.S., on the other hand, the platform would nonetheless be to be had for loads of hundreds of thousands of customers globally (a minimum of for now). And clips which might be prevalent on TikTok incessantly create their approach to alternative social media platforms. “Say TikTok is banned here — that doesn’t mean that internationally it can’t be a part of a strategy to drive streaming,” says Jen Darmafall, director of selling for ATG Team. “When you see Reels and Shorts make an impact on music consumption, it is often following something that’s going viral on TikTok first.”
A number of entrepreneurs mentioned the usage of VPNs to bypass a possible restrain Stateside and proceed to marketplace their acts to audiences in Europe, Latin The usa and Asia. And virtual entrepreneurs in a foreign country would nearly without a doubt see an inflow of commercial from American artists and labels. “Hiring companies to be a liaison to TikTok creators outside of the U.S. is something that I would think about if I was a musician,” Tuminski notes.
Artists and labels would additionally keep tabs on moderately to peer the place TikTok’s immense, famously energetic consumer bottom within the U.S. finally ends up. “If this goes down, we’ll need to be reactive towards where the content and the traffic and energy shifts,” Henderson says. “Short form video is not going away,” Cloherty consents. “The TikTok audience will go somewhere.”
Reels and Shorts are usually discussed as doable TikTok substitutes because of their short-form video center of attention. However alternative platforms too can grant as doable conduits for conveying track to listeners.
X, previously Twitter, doesn’t pop up in lots of track advertising conversations in this day and age, however Henderson has distinguishable it usher in unused listeners for rappers. He’s been involved in seeking to harness the facility of Twitch as neatly. The APG artist Improper Mangoes noticed a large leap in streams then showing at the current of Kai Cenat, one of the crucial prevalent personalities at the platform.
Entrepreneurs also are intrigued through the chances of Snapchat. “It’s still very heavily used by kids, but it’s not as heavily used by artists,” says Jenna Rosenberg, former vice chairman of virtual advertising at Atlantic Data. “There is an audience on there, it’s just that no one’s talking to them.” Darmafall has noticed “more and more artists posting about following them on Snapchat.”
And if TikTok will get outlawed, the target audience looking for a change may finally end up on every other app altogether, one thing that isn’t these days a part of on a regular basis dialog. “Platforms ebb and flow,” Rosenberg says. “Kids will find one that they’ll gravitate towards, and then we’re all going to have to learn it really quickly and educate the artists on how to utilize it.”
For now even though, TikTok continues to perform within the U.S., using unused listeners to songs like Lola Younger’s “Messy” and Sam Barber’s “Indigo.” “As people are building out their plans for any releases that are coming at the start of the year, they are still including TikTok as part of that plan,” Darmafall says. “It just can’t be your only plan.”