Is Time Running Out on TikTok?

A few weeks ago TikTok was in the news for reasons the app’s developers couldn’t have been happy about. Some of us laughed it off as just another silly rant by Trump. He’s had a lot of them. After reports first surfaced, it seems that the idea of a United States ban on the video-sharing social networking service is picking up steam. As zdnet.com reported yesterday, three high-ranking Trump administration officials have hinted at a ban taking place as soon as this month. 

Ostensibly, the current administration wants to ban the app due to privacy concerns. It is alleged that the developers of the app are selling user data to the Chinese Communist Party. The app – which was developed in China – was previously banned in India, along with nearly five dozen other Chinese-developed apps. Per zdnet, “The Chinese app, now managed through US company ByteDance, has been facing these types of allegations for years, amid a rising wave of anti-Chinese sentiment in the US. The company has always denied these rumors and accusations, stating multiple times that the app is run separately from its Chinese version, named Douyin, and any data on US users is stored in the US, not in China. However, this hasn’t stopped rumors of TikTok serving as a conduit for Chinese spying from resurfacing again and again.”

I won’t delve into whether or not I think the app is indeed collecting and selling our data to China. There’s ample evidence that Trump is just using this as an excuse to go after China. It’s kind of what he does. Personally, I just assume that every app has my data and sells it to someone, somewhere. I don’t know what suddenly makes TikTok any more invasive than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat. Anyway. Not the focus of this article. I want to examine the impact of a potential TikTok ban on the music industry. As Elias Leight pointed out in his article in the Rolling Stone last week, it’s not uncommon to hear statements like, “TikTok is the most important thing in music right now.” It seems crazy that an app where people dance and sing along with a variety of songs can be that impactful. I’ve used the app on occasion. I’ve made a few silly videos of me lip-synching to Weezer songs. It’s fun and a bit goofy. It’s also a vital marketing tool that’s essential to artists and other stakeholders in the music industry. As terrestrial radio becomes less influential in 2020, the industry continues to evolve and look for other avenues of marketing. Social media is an easy, relatively cheap way to push music and TikTok now sits atop the social media throne in terms of virality. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram still exist and are certainly still valuable tools for pushing music. It’s just TikTok’s time to shine. At least for now. Losing this driving force in commerce would be akin to banning MTV in the 80s and 90s. It would be like banning Dick Clark and American Bandstand in the 50s and 60s. There are so many songs that I would never have heard if not for TikTok. I, like many people, rarely listen to the radio anymore. As I get older, I just know what I want to listen to and I go to Spotify or Apple Music and listen to what I want. It can be difficult to introduce people to new music. Apps like TikTok serve as kind of a Trojan horse in a lot of cases. I go to TikTok for the “funny” videos, not necessarily the music. Once I open the app though, I’m introduced to music I otherwise would not have heard. Not only is the app vital for established talents, it’s even more important for independent artists who rely on TikTok to easily and cheaply spread their music. Losing this outlet would be a tremendous hit to artists with limited funds for marketing. Leight’s article attributes this succinct quote to a music insider who wishes to remain anonymous. “It’s gonna be a shitshow.” 

Honestly, this entire article and any other analysis could probably be summed in those five words. Nobody can predict exactly what will happen if the app is indeed banned. Certainly, lots of people will have to figure out other ways to pass the time during the pandemic. The only thing that any of us know for sure, is that it won’t be pretty. The best-case scenario is that some other app will fill the void and the industry will adapt to it. Artists are nothing if not resilient. The potential loss of TikTok will be a setback, for sure. The industry and the artists that make it work will find a way to adapt. They always do