Is previous music actually exploding on TikTok, or has our definition of ‘catalog’ change into outdated?

TikTok’s affect on the music enterprise is tough to dispute.

The app serves as an A&R tool for labels and a distribution and promotion tool for DIY artists, and the virality lottery has made international winners of acts behind music released decades ago.

However simply how previous is almost all of in style ‘previous’ music on TikTok actually, and is the recorded music enterprise’s present definition of ‘catalog’ music changing into more and more dated alongside altering listening patterns amongst customers?

A brand new report from revered digital knowledge evaluation platform Chartmetric means that it’s time to rethink how we outline ‘catalog’.

A fast reminder of terminology: tracks are thought-about ‘frontline’ releases in the event that they’re lower than 18 months previous. ‘Catalog’ is any music older than 18 months.

Technically talking then, Dua Lipa’s US No.3 album Future Nostalgia, and Dangerous Bunny’s streaming smash of an LP YHLQMDLG, each launched in 2020  – an vital 12 months for reference, which we’ll come again to later – are ‘catalog’ releases, as they’re each over 18 months previous.

Earlier than we dive into Chartmetric’s findings and methodology inside its H1 report, it’s vital to level out that the publication of the examine comes on the heels of the information that ‘Present’ music in the USA is getting statistically much less in style.

In accordance with a new midyear report revealed by US market monitor Luminate (formerly MRC Data / Nielsen Music),  ‘Whole Album Consumption’ of ‘Present’ recorded music within the US in H1 2022 fell 1.4% in quantity versus the equal metric from the identical interval of 2021.

‘Catalog’ music, in keeping with Luminate noticed a 19.0% YoY enhance in its streaming quantity within the first half of 2022, whereas the quantity of on-demand audio streams of ‘Present’ music, particularly, fell 2.6% YoY.

This particular story, and certainly the phenomenon of catalog’s rising reputation within the streaming age has change into one of many largest speaking factors within the music business, with the controversy raging about why this pattern has began to emerge.

As famous final week when we reported on Luminate’s H1 report, an absence of blockbuster releases over the previous two years could possibly be one purpose behind ‘present’ music’s waning reputation.

Another excuse is that ‘previous’ music is being handled as if it had been ‘new’ music by younger listeners, with their musical discoveries being pushed by cultural ‘occasions’ like Stranger Issues (Exhibit A: Kate Bush) and virality on in style social platforms like TikTok, as seen with the likes of Fleetwood Mac’s Goals or Boney M’s Rasputin.

In accordance with Chartmetric’s new report, despite the ‘oldies going viral’ narrative doing the rounds within the media, previous ‘catalog’ hits, as in, tracks launched many years in the past, are literally few and much between.

The evaluation agency says that it charted each monitor in its database that has obtained over 10,000 TikTok posts in opposition to the discharge dates of these tracks.

Chartmetric discovered that almost all of tracks that acquired “important traction on TikTok” had been, actually, launched within the final 5 years (see under).

Moreover, most TikTok hits thus far, in keeping with Chartmetric, had been launched in 2020.

And what of tracks launched earlier than the 2010s? In accordance with Chartmetric’s report, and as you’ll be able to see from the graph above “there actually wasn’t a lot exercise occurring in any respect”.

The corporate means that defining ‘catalog’ as something older than three to 5 years can be extra acceptable than the present 18-month measurement.

Provides the report: “The one-off pre-2010s sensations (Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac, and so on.) we hear about within the press are actually extra the exception and never the rule.

“Possibly the actual pattern just isn’t that catalog is blowing up, however that our definition of catalog is outdated, and we should always take into account widening the window from 18 months to wherever from 3-5 years.”

“Possibly the actual pattern just isn’t that catalog is blowing up, however that our definition of catalog is outdated, and we should always take into account widening the window from 18 months to wherever from 3-5 years.”

Chartmetric

Chartmetric’s suggestion to widen the timeframe for what we outline as ‘frontline’ tracks correlates with an argument put ahead by former Spotify Chief Economist Will Web page in an MBW op/ed penned again in 2017, during which he wrote that ‘new’ releases needs to be thought-about something launched throughout the prior 36 months.

This, mentioned Web page on the time, “all leaves the worldwide file enterprise with a vital query to reply: what adjustments when 12 months two of an artist’s marketing campaign really earns you greater than 12 months one?”

Elsewhere in Chartmetric’s report, the corporate states “there was a dramatic peak within the variety of tracks launched in 2020 that generated TikTok exercise”, with that variety narrowing within the subsequent 12 months and a half.

Chartmetric causes that there is likely to be quite a few interrelated components driving this pattern, together with that, “tracks from two years in the past are typically the most well-liked on TikTok” and the acceleration of the adoption of TikTok by impartial artists throughout pandemic lockdowns in 2020.

TikTok was additionally nonetheless out there in India (inhabitants 1.4bn) for the primary half of 2020, earlier than it was banned together with a bunch of different apps over safety considerations.

“As a result of just about any monitor is out there to any music shopper regardless of launch date, we’ll probably proceed to see extra pre-2010s releases get their second probability at capturing the limelight, however within the grand scheme of issues, these situations are prone to stay outliers.”

Chartmetric

Another excuse for this lack of variety of TikTok hits in keeping with Chartmetric, is that “huge music firms caught on to the facility of TikTok and have now began to consolidate the market energy of their precedence tracks on TikTok, which can account for the reducing quantity (thus far) of distinctive post-2020 tracks producing TikTok exercise”.

Provides Chartmetric in its report: “As a result of just about any monitor is out there to any music shopper regardless of launch date, we’ll probably proceed to see extra pre-2010s releases get their second probability at capturing the limelight, however within the grand scheme of issues, these situations are prone to stay outliers.

“The extra rule-defining pattern is the widening timeline of what’s capturing the majority of music shopper consideration, i.e., throughout the final 5 years (market-driven) as a substitute of throughout the final 12 months and a half (conventional frontline).

“In fact, what captures consideration on TikTok doesn’t all the time translate to consumption on streaming platforms, but it surely’s definitely an vital digital sign of the place to focus your sources to maximise engagement on your music.”Music Enterprise Worldwide