Unless your name is Patrick Star and you’ve been living under a very THICK rock, you know what TikTok is. The short-form video sharing platform has grown to reach insane heights in the realm of social media platforms and reached almost 2 billion users in 2023. Most people who are young and hot and fun have been on TikTok since around 2019/2020 and have seen trend after trend, song after song, going more viral than the last and launching some artists’ careers into a very prominent orbit. 

Recently, however, Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company, decided to pull all of its artists’ music off of the platform after UMG and TikTok were unable to come to a new agreement following the expiration of the licensing agreement between the two companies. (BOOOOOO TOMATO, TOMATO, TOMATO) Some major artists represented by the company include Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, SZA(mother), Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and so many more, all now experiencing their music being removed from the platform.

Following this, it poses a question: How is the marketing and promotion of music going to change now that these artists will no longer be able to promote their music through the platform? 

It’s been quite obvious that having a song go viral on TikTok has become many artists’ golden ticket to fame, no matter how bad the song is. (This is fully shaded towards “Abcdefu” by GAYLE and “Supalonely” by BENEE like, if those songs have no haters literally check on my family because I’ve died.) 

It is also evident through the plethora of new artists that we have been introduced to in recent years such as Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat. During the early stages of TikTok’s rise to social media dominance, plenty of people found themselves, whether they were in front of the camera or behind a screen, unable to escape songs like “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion and “Say So” by Doja Cat. Dances were created, names were cemented, and the ability for an artist to directly engage with their fans was never the same. 

So, now that UMG has pulled all of its artists’ music off of the streaming platform, are artists going to have find new ways to promote their songs without the help that TikTok offered or are we going to have revert back to the traditional methods artists took when promoting their releases like more interviews, live performances, radio airplay, etc.? 

Also, what artists can we confidently say owe their careers to the promotion that TikTok offered? 

Would Billie Eilish be the Oscar and 9 time Grammy-winner that she is today? I’m gonna go with most likely not. No shade though because I was streaming Bellyache when no one else was, I’ve BEEN here! Notice me, bookie!

Would anyone have cared about Olivia Rodrigo getting her driver’s license? I literally had mine for a year before her like she wants to be me so bad it’s insane.

Would Ice Spice be shaking a** in the Deli or working there? The People’s Princess like there is no Ice Spice slander as long as I am alive like, why do you hate having fun and being young and seeing her win?

 **If she gets canceled within the next few years for something controversial though, I actually never said that like, you never read that, you’re crazy, and you made it up. <3**

Am I finally going to be free of the re-recorded Taylor Swift songs that all sound the same as they did 10 years ago except they’re … worse? 8,250 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions released from her private jet(s)… she lost me after that even though she really never had me to begin with. Folklore ate though.

*If you’re reading this Taylor, I’m just playing bae! You know me, girl, I’m crazy!!! Slide me your wallet though, I need to borrow like $4 million for a Chipotle burrito with guac and queso, a Miami Mint Elfb*r, and this Vivienne Westwood necklace I saw on Depop the other day. Don’t blame me, blame the economy!

** And lowkey the story of what happened with Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Solange in that elevator like, I just KNOW you know something, Tay Tay! Don’t gatekeep bestie! <3

Just some food for thought.

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H.A.G.S.! Kisses!

Braylon Thibeaux♡‧₊˚