Hello!
A couple weeks ago, my friend Josh sent me a link to an article on LinkedIn about "The Fortnite Effect," or more broadly, the boost received by music when it is featured in a game which sees as many daily players as Fortnite does.
This isn't a new phenomenon— we can look to covid's Fortnite concert series which most notably featured a specially crafted digital Travis Scott performance. However, the recent market shake-up that was UMG pulling all of their music from TikTok seems like an indication that new channels may become increasingly prevalent as labels look to maximize their profits per stream and build "super fans," through new methods of engagement building.
Needless to say that there has been a high bar set. It's reported that TikTok users who are music fans are 19% more likely to pay for a music service than their music loving non-TT having counterparts. It has also served as a major career igniter (or re-igniter at times) for a number of artists who were already label recognized talent. Think Omar Apollo's TT powered Evergreen popularity spike, or Pinegrove's Need 2 and associated dance trend.
This begs the question of whether a video game could generate the same level of fan building and noise making for artists. We've seen this in a few cases where a song featured in a soundtrack sees play as a result, think Fifa soundtracks or the aforementioned Fortnite appearances. I think in order for video games to replace TikTok completely there needs to be a level of accessibility that doesn't exist completely as of now. The music business in the current era is a game of volume which requires ease-of-access for the utmost success.
One step towards that is the Roblox game "Boombox," covered by Hits Daily Double here. This game offers distribution and pay-per-stream capabilities to labels looking to branch into the video game space. Notably, K-pop band Twice recently collaborated with this Roblox game on a specialized "experience," that went on to be the most visited Roblox space of all time. Quite the cosign on this new idea, with the important caveat that K-pop stans are notorious for doing whatever it takes to keep their faves on the top of the charts.
If these custom "experiences," can demonstrate longevity, then this will obviously become an industry trend, especially given how much Roblox is targeted at young fans who are a key demographic when building long term success.
The real distinction then, will be whether these video game experiences remain a marketing/promotional tool for huge artists with deep pockets, or become a tool for fans and smaller artists as well. TikTok's combination of all three of these groups is the magical formula which we have yet to see replicated at the same scale and success level. Beyond that, there's also the question of whether other age demographics can be hooked in at a high rate. For my money, this appears to be getting easier and easier as the digital world becomes increasingly prevalent in our lives.
There's a lot of things that need to be discussed on top of this I think, like the weaknesses of TikTok's platform and how they can be capitalized on by competitors, and the question of when the pendulum will swing from our current highly online moment towards a stance more grounded in the real world.
If you have any thoughts don't hesitate to hit me up.
Bye!
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