TikTok offers ways for developed artists to connect in new ways with their fans such as input on releases and cover art, which we examine through examples from Oliva O’Brien and Doja Cat, (and is backed by a scholarly article from Teague and Smith) while still offering opportunities through their algorithm for developing artists to find a larger fan base. When various trends occur on the app users will recreate them, and when a dance or other trend becomes popular, the song associated with it often goes viral as well, as evidenced by Doja cats “Say So” (Acosta 2020). The song’s sound currently has over 11.5 million creations, and her video dancing to it has 17.5 million views with 2.5 million likes and 11.1 thousand comments, showing very high user engagement and great marketing, since every time someone views her video or one of the other videos that use the song in it they are listening to the song.

The TikTok “For You” page is where users will often come across these trending videos. The “For You” page prioritizes users who post consistently, so there is a lot of pressure for artists to put out content daily. For independent artists, this can be a great way to get discovered, but there are other ways that artists who already have a fan base can use TikTok to reach greater success, without having to post constantly.

One way that artists accomplish this is by engaging their fans on TikTok: asking which song they want the artist to release first, posting behind-the-scenes content or “how I made this song” videos, and hosting contests that involve fans. An example of an artist who has engaged her fans in multiple of these ways, including contests and letting fans pick which single is released next, is Olivia O’Brien (O’Brien 2021).

Olivia’s previous single, titled “Sociopath” was chosen to be released as a result of her posting snippets of two songs and telling her fans they get to pick which single she puts out next based on which received the most interactions (O’Brien 2021). The TikTok of “Sociopath” has received 1.1 million views and counting, as well as 184.6 thousand likes and 14.9 thousand comments (O’Brien 2021). In comparison, the other song received 1.1 million views, 164.1 thousand likes and 13.4 thousand comments. (O’Brien 2021).In addition to this, Olivia held a contest for the cover art for her next single where she chose from fan-made cover art submissions through a TikTok hashtag (O’Brien 2021). Another key part of TikTok for all artists is that its sounds can help revive older catalog songs (Teague and Smith 2021).