“I have definitely pitched this exact idea to artists’ labels and management before and gotten it approved,” said Charlie, a social media manager who has worked with artists across four different music labels and asked not to use his last name for privacy reasons, told BuzzFeed News via text. “It’s often more difficult to get the client to actually act on making the posts because they sometimes think it’s corny.”
Regardless of how sincere the complaints about record label pressures were, Halsey’s post about not wanting to have to go viral ended up going viral. When the artist complained that “it’s all marketing,” the extensive industry research explored by NPR, Rolling Stone, and Billboard confirmed they were right. Music is a core part of TikTok, and music industry marketers are aware that the app has 1 billion users, and thus 1 billion potential new fans of the music they’re trying to promote.
George Howard, an associate professor of music business and management at Berklee College of Music, told BuzzFeed News that artists’ complaints about having to make TikToks reminded him of what happened decades ago when artists initially weren’t thrilled to make music videos for MTV.
“There were a lot of artists like REM that said, Hell no, I’m not going to make videos. That’s demeaning, and I didn’t sign up for this,” Howard said. “But there were other artists, like Duran Duran, who said, OK, I’ll do it, hold my beer.”
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kelseyweekman/halsey-tiktok-trend-label-complaint
