Is previous music actually exploding on TikTok, or has our definition of ‘catalog’ turn into outdated?

TikTok’s affect on the music enterprise is difficult 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 world winners of acts behind music released decades ago.

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

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

A fast reminder of terminology: tracks are thought of ‘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 essential yr 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 essential to level out that the publication of the research comes on the heels of the information that ‘Present’ music in the US is getting statistically much less well-liked.

Based on a new midyear report printed 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, based on Luminate noticed a 19.0% YoY improve 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 recognition within the streaming age has turn into one of many largest speaking factors within the music business, with the talk raging about why this development has began to emerge.

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

One more reason 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 well-liked social platforms like TikTok, as seen with the likes of Fleetwood Mac’s Goals or Boney M’s Rasputin.

Based on Chartmetric’s new report, despite the ‘oldies going viral’ narrative doing the rounds within the media, previous ‘catalog’ hits, as in, tracks launched a long time in the past, are literally few and much between.

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

Chartmetric discovered that almost all of tracks that acquired “vital traction on TikTok” had been, in reality, launched within the final 5 years (see beneath).

Moreover, most TikTok hits thus far, based on Chartmetric, had been launched in 2020.

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

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

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

“Perhaps the actual development is just not that catalog is blowing up, however that our definition of catalog is outdated, and we must always think about widening the window from 18 months to wherever from 3-5 years.”

“Perhaps the actual development is just not that catalog is blowing up, however that our definition of catalog is outdated, and we must always think about 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 of something launched inside the prior 36 months.

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

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

Chartmetric causes that there is perhaps numerous interrelated elements driving this development, together with that, “tracks from two years in the past are usually the preferred on TikTok” and the acceleration of the adoption of TikTok by impartial artists throughout pandemic lockdowns in 2020.

TikTok was additionally nonetheless accessible 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 accessible to any music shopper no matter 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 more likely to stay outliers.”

Chartmetric

One more reason for this lack of range of TikTok hits based on Chartmetric, is that “large music firms caught on to the ability 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 accessible to any music shopper no matter 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 more likely to stay outliers.

“The extra rule-defining development is the widening timeline of what’s capturing the majority of music shopper consideration, i.e., inside the final 5 years (market-driven) as an alternative of inside the final yr and a half (conventional frontline).

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

Learn ChartMetric’s new H1 2022 report through here.Music Enterprise Worldwide