TikTok, the wolf disguised as a grandmother – Companies

It is one of the most worn narrative threads, seen and reviewed in thousands of horror films, the one where the character in danger, believing he is taking shelter and finding help, on the contrary falls into the trap. The fatal precaution, a variation of the wolf disguised as a grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood. But that doesn’t just happen in slashers or fairy tales. This trick seems to work in the music business as well.
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It is one of the most worn narrative threads, seen and reviewed in thousands of horror films, the one where the character in danger, believing he is taking shelter and finding help, on the contrary falls into the trap. The fatal precaution, a variation of the wolf disguised as a grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood. But that doesn’t just happen in slashers or fairy tales. This trick seems to work in the music business as well. In the role of the wolf-disguised-as-a-grandmother, TikTok and in that of Little Red Riding Hood, the record companies. As Ted Gioia deciphers in an article in his newsletter The Honest Broker (“Record Labels Dig Their Own Grave. And the Shovel is Called TikTok”), in recent years, music labels have experienced TikTok as a windfall effect. An unexpected booster where the artists were able to explode in front of the world. Blessed virality allowing “label executives to sit back and watch the money pour into their bank accounts”. After streaming, here is a welcome new source of income and exposure. A providential ally. But who turned into a predator. Ted Gioia dissects the infernal mechanics of the trap. Thanks to social networks and more particularly to TikTok, the labels have had the chance to get out of the trap of promotion, preferring to outsource it to the artists themselves; It is up to each musician to build his fanbase. Even better, some labels have started signing artists who already have their own community built through TikTok and other platforms, with follower count becoming a requirement. Isn’t it more comfortable to sign an artist who already has his audience? All that remains is to read the counters. But in doing so, labels are gradually losing their ability to be the architects of their artists’ careers. And this is where the trap closes: as soon as they are able to generate their own audience on their own, they no longer need record companies. So, as Gioia puts it, “labels are digging their graves with a shovel called TikTok.” What turned out to be a windfall ultimately drained their craft of substance, leading to an absurd situation that Ted Gioia points out: “With the TikTokization of the music business, only non-walking musicians will still need of a label”. Because what is the interest for an artist who has already built up his business on social networks to sign on a label which will, in addition, puncture him a leonine percentage on his royalties? We could obviously welcome this emancipation of artists from record companies. Thanks to technology, the dream of the artist in direct contact with his audience can finally come true! Except that it may also be a mirage. Because if the history of music often retains the dysfunctional relationships between musicians and record companies – The Beatles, Prince, George Michael, etc. -, it generally ignores what the labels bring when they fulfill their mission: to allow the musician to express his potential over time. However, by freeing themselves from the hell of one label, artists risk finding themselves immersed in another, that of the fury of immediacy and oblivion on social networks and streaming. In a paradoxical situation: while the musician can today do without a label to sell his music, it is perhaps now that he needs it the most to hope to exist as an artist.