Photo Courtesy of A1234

The video app TikTok has amassed over 800 million active users worldwide and has been downloaded over 2 billion times. The success of the app has resulted in marketing campaigns run through its platform: Modeling agencies are using it for scouting, while smaller musicians are utilizing the app for exposure.

The algorithm of the app offers users videos similar to the ones they have already engaged with, a process that encourages creators to create bite-sized content that might go viral. The logistics of the app also make it easier for creators to find their “niche,” which promotes the creation of individualized content that users can enjoy. For smaller, independent artists, TikTok offers a chance for creatives to connect with audiences and to promote their work in an organic way.

A 19-year-old independent artist from New York, ella jane, writes indie-pop music with dreamy electronic beats, neat metaphors and catchy pop melodies. Her debut single “The City” has amassed over 2 million streams on Spotify since its release in February 2020. Her second single, “nothing else i could do,” which was released in July 2020, has since amassed over 1 million streams on Spotify. “TikTok has been the coolest experience,” she said. “I’ve gotten to see people – real people – engage with my music in a way you just can’t get from Instagram or other platforms.”

The singer-songwriter has used TikTok as a way to promote her work from the beginning, gaining a TikTok following of 75,700 and gathering a total of 3 million likes as a result. Her second single was added to the Spotify playlist “Lorem,” which has over 800,000 followers. A video ella jane made describing the process of writing the song went viral on TikTok as well. The video has since been viewed over 1 million times, with over 500,000 likes and 2,000 shares.

“One morning I woke up to see my song, [“nothing else i could do”], at No. 16 on Spotify’s U.S. Viral 50 chart, and it happened, not because the song went viral as a sound, but because a TikTok I made explaining the song’s backstory led [TikTok users] to search me up on Spotify,” ella jane said. “That day I got 70,000 streams.”

While some artists have individual songs blow up as viral “sounds” on the app, with thousands of users creating videos to a snippet of their music, others, like ella jane, are using TikTok to make fundamental connections with listeners and to reach a wider audience.

“[TikTok] definitely has not changed the way that I make music, because writing for me has always been this sort of personal and emotional outlet,” she said. “I want TikTok to be an opportunity for me to share my music and have people want to listen to the full songs, and all of them, because they genuinely like them.”

All of ella jane’s singles are available to stream on Spotify. She can also be found on TikTok as @ellajanemusic.