TikTok Effect: New Report Says Artists See Double-Digit Lift in Streams After Viral Peaks

It’s well established that a song which becomes popular on TikTok often becomes popular on streaming services soon after. The platform aims to quantify this effect in its second annual Music Impact Report, released on Thursday (Feb. 13): On average, “an artist can expect an 11% increase in on-demand music streaming over the course of the three days following a peak in TikTok total views.”

TikTok commissioned the latest report, and it hits the same themes as its predecessor, repeatedly emphasizing the extent to which music fans on the platform are more engaged than average listeners, and thus more supportive of the larger music ecosystem. (Luminate conducted the analysis.) 

“TikTok’s role as a driver of music discovery and artist success is already well known,” Ole Obermann, global head of music business development at TikTok, said in a statement. “However, Luminate’s report goes even further in laying out the many ways in which TikTok and its community of highly-engaged and high-spending music fans are proven to drive incremental revenues, chart success, and added value to artists and the music industry.”

The study finds that 40% of U.S. TikTok users “listen to a new album on release week — a rate that is 27% higher than that of the average U.S. music listener.” And they are more likely to seek out additional information about musicians they like: “50% of U.S. TikTok users say they enjoy watching videos about music artists, such as interviews and behind-the-scenes content — 47% higher than the average U.S. social and [short-form video] user.”

The report also finds that American TikTok users are more willing to shell out for music (“spending 46% more money on [it] each month than the average U.S. music listener”), live experiences (52%), and artist merch (62%).

On top of that, they like to watch the charts — and try to influence them. “TikTok users are 40% more likely to make music purchases with the specific goal of boosting an artist’s chart position compared to the average consumer who makes music purchases,” according to the report.

In 2024, TikTok went wide with the “add to music app,” which allows users to quickly save music they find on the platform to their streaming service of choice. The latest report indicates that users have saved more than 1 billion songs to their streaming service of choice, though it’s hard to make much of this number without any additional context, as TikTok has a large user base.

The report also serves up two case studies that suggest a strong correlation between TikTok views and saves (for Sabrina Carpenter the week she released Short n’ Sweet) and between saves and streams (for Korn’s catalog). But the overall impact of the feature on the interplay between TikTok and streaming services remains unclear.

In his statement, Obermann said the “add to music app” “is already positively influencing artist success and chart placements, and the most exciting thing is that we are just getting started.”