TikTok is finally bringing its TikTok For Artists analytics programme to South Africa. The platform is home to hundreds of African musical creators, giving it a continuous supply of viral songs, dances, and memes. This analytics feature enables aspiring musicians to hone in on the content their fans engage with most, giving them a better perspective for their next move.
TikTok takes time for music
TikTok For Artists provides musicians with analytics on their presence on the platform, the same way ‘studio’ versions of sites like YouTube do for content creators. The Chinese social media platform launched the feature early this year and is finally bringing it to South Africa, with no news on an expansion into greater Africa.
From its very inception, TikTok has been the most musically oriented of all social media platforms. Users have long relied on it for new music recommendations and to share their own. About two years ago, the platform introduced the “Add to Music App” feature, which, self-evidently, allows users to add songs they come across to their streaming app of choice.
TikTok for Artists aims to help musicians and their team gain deeper insights into what is and isn’t working so they can accelerate improvement. The insights artists can gain include: song performance (comprising view and post count), and creator engagements per track. Post performance to analyse views, likes, comments, shares, and post completion rates. Follower insights will give artists a breakdown of their followers’ demographics, including gender, age, and language. The social media company will also provide step-by-step guides to maximise TikTok’s tools and features, as well as “Support and resources” for building and sustaining a career long term. What this support or these resources entail isn’t expanded on.
Additionally, the platform is launching a “pre-release” feature that will allow artists to upload music ahead of time for timely releases, so that they can run promotion campaigns and give fans the ability to pre-save the music to their streaming platform of choice.
