As an artist, you naturally want to promote your music as much as possible to attract new fans and bookings. The amount of platforms for this are endless. In this article we look at a relatively new social media platform: TikTok. Here we will take a closer look at how to set up a strong artist profile.
What is TikTok
TikTok is a social media platform where users can record short videos ranging from three seconds to three minutes of well-known songs and other sound clips and then share them with others. These videos can end up on the 'For You' page (the homepage) based on other users' interests. Through dances, challenges and other types of content, you can (fairly) easily and quickly score a viral hit, quickly appealing to a new target group.
Why TikTok?
Nowadays, social media users prefer short videos. This is what TikTok is all about. An attractive factor is that you don't need a budget to create a fun, authentic TikTok video. TikTok's algorithm ensures that your video ends up with people who are interested in similar content. This allows you to organically reach people who will appreciate your content. With 1 billion monthly active users, you can reach a huge amount of people worldwide.
An example of this is the artist Alexandra Kay. An R&B and country artist who went viral on TikTok by covering a country song. Now she herself has over 5 million streams on her own songs. Or like pop artist Loren Gray, who now has more than 50 million followers on TikTok. She too started with covers of popular songs that went viral. Now she has several hits of her own. For example, her most famous song has over 60 million listeners on Spotify.
Check out Serena Mente her TikTok profile!
How do you set up a good artist profile?
Now it's time to set up your artist profile. To make yourself easily findable as an artist, it is important to come up with a name similar to the artist name or band name. This can be the same name you use on Instagram or Facebook. In addition, a clear photo is also important and you can already attract many followers with your biography.
How do you write a good biography?
Your bio may consist of up to 80 characters.
What do you want to name in your bio:
- Description: A description about your brand or the content of your account. For example: 'Artist' or 'Singer-songwriter'.
- Emojis: Use emojis, you only have a limited number of characters so use them smartly. For example, show the instrument you play using a 🥁🎤🎧🎺🎻🎸.
- Hashtag: Do you already have a branded hashtag? This can increase your findability and your fanbase on TikTok. Post your hashtag under every video but also definitely in your bio.
- Call to Action: Place a 'Call to Action'. What do you want to achieve with your account? More streams on Spotify, or more followers on Instagram? Sell out a concert?
- Link in Bio: This last step is a little tricky. You have to have a business account for a clickable link in bio. The disadvantage of a company account is that you have no access to many sounds because of copyright issues. This is a consideration that you as an artist must make yourself. If you want to respond to certain TikTok trends, then you need these musical sounds. If you go for a company account with the possibility of a link in the bio, then you can also choose to recreate the sounds yourself and show your own musical strength. This takes more time, but makes you more authentic as an artist.
Getting started
Once your profile is up, it's good to think about who you are going to follow. Following other artists can help you find inspiration for your own TikTok. You can also respond to other artists' TikToks so you can connect with them.
Content
When creating content, think about how you want to portray yourself. It is important that you have answered the following questions for yourself: who are you? What do you want to radiate? And who is your target group and what values do you share with them? Everything you do on TikTok can have a direct impact on your reputation as an artist/band. To promote your own TikToks, you need to think about your keywords and your hashtags. The content of your content, the hashtags and description should match the image you want to create for your artist brand.
Sound
As a musician, the sound behind the TikTok video is obviously very important. When creating content, think about how you can use music. Slowly introduce your own music here too, but don't be too aggressive with it. Only posting TikToks about your own music will hardly attract followers in the beginning. By combining familiar sounds, which you like yourself, you will attract followers who you can then introduce to your own music. In doing so, it is important that you are honest about what your own music is. If you are not, people may start to think you are fake and your promotion will backfire.
Additional tips:
- Do not say or mention the term: 'Link in bio' in your video's or in the caption under the video. TikTok recognizes this term and makes sure other users do not see your comment or video. An alternative to this phrase could be: Check out the description on my profile.
- Want to know how to take the first steps to creating content on TikTok? This page has the best introduction.
- If you want to reach people who are not on TikTok, the app makes it very easy for you and your audience to share the videos on other social media platforms.
Now you know how to set up a good artist profile. Keep an eye on the Gigstarter socials if you want to know what content you can post as an artist. We will go further into this in Part 2 of this series of articles. Do you want to know something about the use of TikTok? DM us on our Gigstarter TikTok account.
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