No doubt TikTok’s breathing a sigh of relief that it was able to establish a new copyright deal with UMG just in time for Billie Eilish’s latest album release.
Because evidently, it’s keen to use Eilish’s popularity, specifically, to spark more engagement in the app.
The platform has today announced a new “Fan Spotlight” for artists, with Eilish as the model, which will provide more ways for musicians to prompt engagement with fans in the app, helping to maximize their reach.
As explained by TikTok:
“Fan Spotlight is a new artist-first feature which allows artists to showcase their favourite fan videos on their music tab. An artist can choose to showcase up to five of their favourite fan videos at a time, by ‘pinning’ them to the top of their music tab as a ‘Fan Spotlight’. If a video is chosen as a ‘Fan Spotlight’ by the artist, the creator will receive a notification. The video will then remain pinned to the top of the artist’s music tab for up to 7 days, after which the artist can choose to pin new fan videos.”
Which could be a great way to spark more engagement with music fans in the app, with users able to get recognition from the artists that they love, by posting tribute videos, and helping to spread the word about their releases.
That forms a significant promo cycle, adding more incentive for fan videos, which are then amplified by artists, inspiring more content throughout the app. And with TikTok now playing a key role in music discovery, that could be a powerful draw for more musicians to make TikTok a focus.
Though in order to do that, TikTok needs to also have license to use their music, which, for several months, wasn’t possible for many due to a dispute between TikTok and UMG. Billie Eilish is a UMG artist, as is Taylor Swift, among many others, and both TikTok and UMG stood to lose out on all of this promotional potential while their disagreement dragged on.
But now, the music can play again in the app, which will mean that even more artists will be able to use this option to help promote their music, and generate more engagement among fans in the app.
I mean, at least until TikTok gets banned in the U.S. But that’s a whole other thing.