Approximately 430 songssurpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok ‘sounds’ in 2021, which was three times more than in 2020, when over 175 songs reached the billion view mark.
That’s according to the ByteDance-owned short-form video platform’s new ‘Year on TikTok 2021 Music Report’, which also reveals the top songs, genres, and artists on the platform over the year.
TikTok notes that these view counts don’t “exist in a vacuum, but directly translate to commercial success for trending songs and artists”, with over 175 songs that trended on the platform in 2021 charting on the Billboard Hot 100, twice the number that charted in 2020 according to TikTok.
In December 2020, TikTok reported that over 70 artists that broke on the platform last year signed major label deals.
This year, while TikTok hasn’t provided an exact number of artists who went on to sign deals after seeing success on the platform, it does cite a few creators in particular as having “earned major label contracts and millions of monthly listeners on Spotify” by leveraging their followings.
Those artists referenced in the report include Bella Poarch (Warner Records), Lil Huddy (Immersive/Geffen), and Nessa Barrett (Warner Records),Canadian singer-songwriter JESSIA (Republic Records), Reyanna Maria (Republic Records) and Jax (Atlantic).
TikTok says that Poarch, whose single Build A B*tch generated over 4.3 million combined video creations, was the “most impactful of these creators-turned-artist”.
Both Build A B*tch and INFERNO, Bella’s collaboration with fellow TikTok creator Sub Urban, made TikTok’s list of Top 20 most-viewed pop songs of 2021.
Elsewhere in the report, TikTok reveals that Latin music was the fastest-growing genre on the platform in the US, rising from tenth fastest-growing last year, to sixth in 2021.
Kali Uchis’s song telepatía was the top Latin track on TikTok in 2021 and Ivan Cornejo’s Está Dañada was the second most popular Latin track on the platform this year.
According to TikTok, Está Dañada was also one of the first regional Mexican hits ever to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
TikTok also reveals that Hip-hop/rap was the most-popular genre amongst its users in 2021 and that Popp Hunna’s Adderall (Corvette Corvette) was the most-popular hip-hop song in the US.
Additionally, Megan Thee Stallion racked up the most catalog video views of any artist in 2021 for the second straight year.
Doja Cat achieved the second-most catalog video views of any artist in 2021.
Lil Nas X, who had one of the first and biggest TikTok hits with Old Town Road back in 2019, was the most viewed artist (by video views on his page) in 2021.
Olivia Rodrigo saw every song from her debut album SOUR, released in May 2021, achieve over 100,000 video creations on TikTok this year.
“TikTok opens the door to new artists, new sounds, underground and DIY scenes as well as the classic hits, connecting them with a global audience and passionate music community like never before.”
Ole Obermann, TikTok’s Global Head of Music, said: “TikTok opens the door to new artists, new sounds, underground and DIY scenes as well as the classic hits, connecting them with a global audience and passionate music community like never before.
“2021 has been a huge year for music and for TikTok and we’ve been humbled how the industry and so many artists have partnered with us to make this magic happen across so many different countries.
“From the Beatles to Sea Shanties, J Balvin to Abba and of course who can forget Taylor Swift’s entry – the last 12 months have provided so many music moments, inspired our community of one billion and shown the world that music starts and lives on TikTok.”Music Business Worldwide
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