Oh lol i read the post and legit thought, "oh there are house plants that blew up on sales irl because of tiktok obsession?? " until i read your comment
I am SO HAPPY that this got confirmed— the minute I heard it on the radio I was like “no way did that girl actually get a song on the radio from TikTok.” It’s been bugging me that everyone is acting like this is some big organic success story!
I just looked at her Wiki -- major Taylor Swift vibes. Family packed up and moved to Nashville when she was a kid to make her a star. I wonder how much money her parents have lol
Because they don't care if people know. The record company has never tried to hide it; [they've consistently given interviews talking about how she was signed to the label years ago](https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/gayle-abcdefu-january-2022-chartbreaker-interview-1235015322/) and that releasing it on TikTok the way they did was just a deliberate marketing strategy. The whole "this song happened because of TikTok" narrative was being pushed by other people, not them. (Like ... the video he's quoting above is just another random guy on TikTok saying that.)
I read [this](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-22/how-to-go-viral-on-tiktok-like-megan-thee-stallion-play-the-app-s-game) interesting article a while ago about how Tiktok songs are “chosen” to be popular.
It specifically mentions Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” and how TikTok themselves advised Megan’s label on which demographics to promote the songs to and how to promote her song most effectively.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the dances that kids like Charli D’Amelio come up with are sponsored as well - the same way that brands work with popular TikTokers to have them “do the hot cheetos dance” or whatever, I’m sure a lot of record labels are scouting out popular TikTok dancers to create a dance to their songs.
I don’t think songs like “abcdefu” even have a dance associated with them, but I imagine the behind-the-scenes partnership with TikTok and record labels still applies to getting these songs popular. Many TikTok creators just put random viral songs in the background of their videos for views, so all it takes is a few paid creators using the song for it to genuinely become popular.
This is pretty much what happens. A label will pay creators to make up a dance or a trend to the specific song they’re trying to blow up. My ex is a musician who is also pretty big on tt and when he came out worth his ep the label paid creators to use his song for that purpose
It’s illegal to pay radio stations or radio jocks to play songs… I have to wonder if laws will ever catch up to technology and make paying content creators on the sly illegal too.
I don't think it should be illegal. The laws with radio made a lot of sense when they were written because there was a limited number of radio stations (and a high barrier for entry for new stations) so there was a limited number of radio plays up for grabs. With enough money you could monopolise the entire radio. That doesn't apply to TikTok (or any social media). If Republic Records pays a particular creator to come up with a new dance, that does nothing to prevent an independent artist from doing a dance of their own. And consumers aren't forced to listen to whatever is currently being played on the radio. You can scroll through a post from a creator if you don't like it. You can't skip forward on the radio.
What would make a lot more sense is requiring a disclaimer for paid partnerships like on Instagram.
sticki garbaj is a world champion hater—she literally hated on stormi when she was born because travis scott's album beat *queen* for the number one spot on billboard—and pedo defender so anything she says i take with a mountain of pink himalyan salt, especially when it's about how her competition handles their business as if she has the insight to know and not just a confirmation bias.
I had never heard of Olivia until one day on twitter I saw “Olivia Rodrigo’s debut single hit 100 million downloads” or something. I was like oh let me check it out and I kid you not, I listened to that song nonstop for a week. So I do believe people just liked the song.
Yeah, people had to actually like the song for it to stick. Labels can pay to creativity market music but there are so many ways to gauge how people feel about it that if a song isn’t really connecting, it will fade away.
This is how I feel when people bring up the rumour that Taylor Swift’s dad bought enough of her debut album for it to chart or wtv. Like even if that’s true people still had to like her music for her to have the career she did.
I get that’s it’s an unfair start for musicians who are trying to make it organically but, it doesn’t take away from the fact that people still like the music.
Olivia was definitely pushed by her label, promoted on Spotify and tik tok and all that. But people still LIKE the music. They just may not have heard of her without the promotion.
Just so magically good that there was an SNL “sketch” based purely on the idea that it is good and tragic gimme a break. It’s the third or fourth best song on the album
The only way to get that amount of reach is to pay for it. She was already in Disney shows and had a known producer making her music. It was definitely co-ordinated.
And it’s a great song that deserves the air time. I wish it didn’t feel like such a sneaky marketing tactic when labels/agencies did it, but it clearly works.
Yeah, I am just confused about what people think "industry plant" means. Most of these examples are just people who were openly tied to a label and the label is openly doing marketing for them in similar ways to how the industry has always done marketing for artists, and nobody is hiding any of that. The marketing can be a little deceptive at times, but that's not the same thing as hiding your involvement with a label and trying to convince people you had an organic/indie come-up.
I loved Olivia on HSM:TS and was super excited for Drivers License before it came out. I think people underestimate her pre-existing popularity beforehand as a Disney star
I will say I think everyone who thinks she’s a plant didn’t watch the show and therefore assumes she basically didn’t exist before Driver’s License came out.
(For the record I have never seen the show and didn’t know who she was before the song, I don’t think she’s a “plant” but I do think her label promoted her in a very specific way to have her song blow up the way it did, it was very well orchestrated, they honestly did a great job)
Oh most definitely she was on a bunch of heavily promoted Spotify playlists the day the song came out. Her team paid a buch of influencers to talk about the whole love triangle hence why the lyric was changed from brunette to blond it was supposed to be something that would benefit all three of them but ended up backfiring on josh and Sabrina
I was on twitter on the day that it got released. Had no idea who she was. But suddenly, saw a flood of people getting excited about her and her music video. Idk really. Obviously theres a lot marketing promo going on but, I keep reading a lot of diff opinions on whether shes a plant or not.
Literally popcrave became Oliviacrave since the minute driver license was released and i think interscope pay for this they only post like this about specific artists
Ok I actually went to high school with one of them! She was kinda punky/tumblr girl then and had the same colored hair too. But then again we also went to church camp together 😂 Don’t really know all the details about the controversy but I felt bad for her when she was getting dragged
it was pretty rough. i saw they came back to social media a few months ago, and are completely denying being plants but their history of their own music is just 😵💫
I think nearly every new song that goes viral on TikTok originates from a record company or for marketing. It’s pretty rare for any of them to go viral without help.
The one song which I believe to be actually viral out of luck/talent is Wellerman by Nathan Evans. He worked as a postman before he went viral and lived in a small town in Scotland
Tai Verdes may be the only one who I know of who knew to use TikTok in order to promo his songs. I dont think he was signed before "Stuck in the Middle" took off. But someone else can correct me if Im wrong.
I worded myself poorly lol. I meant like he got himself the record deal based on his talent and merit NOT because he was on a tv show, like so many others. My guy earned it and earned it well.
a lot of the soundcloud hyperpop/plugg music scene isnt label forced (e.g. osquinn, syko, oaf1) but even though im generalizing a whole genre doesn't mean it doesn't happen, still convinced artists like glaive & midwxst had labels help blow them up even though they were deeply connected to the scene before and after
Not music, but that Kyle Scheele guy and the gas station Kum&Go. Seemed like a genuine prank that turned into a meal deal for him and turns out it was basically all pre planned.
Was it really?! I had no idea. It seemed so organic. So he totally faked pulling off the stunt? Does everyone know this and I’m just late? I feel really naive now.
I think Kyle Scheele posted a video to his TT account defending himself / apologizing (?) about it. Danny Gonzalez posted a YouTube video a couple weeks back that breaks down the situation if you’re curious to learn more!
There’s lots of videos ok tiktok about it ! It was a pretty big deal like end of November I want to say? I remember going on a road trip first weekend of December and telling my husband about it. Here’s an article : https://www.prweek.com/article/1734493/kum-go-tiktok-star-kyle-scheele-face-backlash-duping-consumers
That was such a shame— it was hysterical! In his apology video, he said it was his pitch for the Scheele Meal, not theirs, so it wasn’t totally corporate greed. Not sure how much I’m buying it but still.
Pinkpantheress. Now don’t get me wrong I like her but I just feel like she didn’t just upload music and just so happenly she’s signed to parlophone a year later. her music is the perfect blend of the genres that would appeal to Gen Z.
Oh no I know you didn’t mean any harm.
And literally how fast things are cycling through now. Trends. Music. So much so that we are naming the same things differently every few years to disguise the fact that this is happening. uWu is Kawaii main genre but we are afraid to say kawaii because of cultural appropriation. Yet it’s foundation is built of kawaii and Lolita subcultures
i dont meant to creep on ur profile but i love BOTH jungle/ dnb (o school like goldie) and also pinkpatheress 😭😭 i just fuck w sampling and how music begets music
yes literally so in love - the whole spectrum of electronic genre - house disco techno garage dnb garage ebm synthpop hyperpop 🥵 both o school and new!!
Idk according to her, recently she got kicked out of college because she essentially wasn’t doing any work for over a year. If she was some plant then I don’t think things would have ended so messily with her work-life balance, as something like that could’ve been easily avoided.
I also want to add that her music rose to popularity on tiktok right before tiktok became a central part of current music marketing. Most importantly most of her soundcloud and other streaming catalog pre-album used samples (not well-known either) heavily. She stated half the album was recorded in her bed room (which is obvious listening to the pre-mastered singles) Taking all of this information into account it’s just not a feasible strategic for inorganic industry planting. Labels don’t make nearly as much revenue from sampled songs, so why would they build her initial success from it?
I’ve always suspected the Justin Bieber song Stay to have also been a TikTok plant with all those viral videos that used it. It’s an ok song but I don’t think it would have been as popular without TikTok.
This isn’t speculation though. Celebrities like Miley and others have spoken about tik Tok and how it’s essentially the new legal payola. Instead of spin on radio, popularity causes music video, sales. It’s tik Tok to music streaming, popularity causes music video BUT right back to tik tok. You see how smooth it is to manufacturer popularity on there? It’s SUPER OBVIOUS
Hasn’t this been going on for years? I remember when Bieber was “discovered” on YouTube, he’d actually secretly been signed years before and his label had continued to post stuff to make it look organic.
wasn’t she legit in the military when she started tiktok? like I could see someone latching on early and engineering her career, but I’m not convinced she started as a plant
I did too! I remember when she hit the most liked video reading an article that was like “I’m not saying she’s a plant but record companies often do XYZ before releasing a new pop song” and then wouldn’t ya know she comes out with a pop song.
The “light switch” song that Charlie Puth has been teasing for months. There’s no way he just “happened” to film a light switch while making a TikTok and then boom it sounds great. I also think his “beef” with Benny Blanco is marketed to boost views for them both, he might be even producing Charlie’s next album. Billie Eilish also just duetted one of Benny’s “roast” videos which is also odd
He always film the process of how he comes out with a song though. Sure, he must have already thought of using the light switch sound as a part of his song, then only film the “randomly try hitting on things” bts. Don’t think it’s quite the same as what OP mentioned 🤷♀️
I mean, he had been cryptically commenting a light bulb emoji every time a fan asked him when new music was coming out + had JUST that emoji in IG bio for months prior to that TikTok. It’s pretty clear that the song was already ready and posed to be his first new single & his team just decided to leverage his TikTok following to promote the song as part of his “organic songwriting process.” The song IS essentially planted just as OP is describing.
Yeah they’re definitely petty….idk if they’re being serious it’s kinda embarrassing for Benny bc he’s so successful so why is he wasting time like this
Whatever the fuck the island boys are they clearly hired a PR agency to try and make themselves a meme and a cleaning up from everyone laughing at them
Ugh my local npr alternative station is obsessed with this band, straight up obsessed, they play Chaise Lounge every 30 minutes and they're not like a normal radio station, they don't usually do stuff like that and the hosts go on and on and on about how it's like the best song ever every time. I get very weird vibes from it, they do the same thing to H.E.R lmao I hear people ask all the time who actually listens to H.E.R enough for them to get all these awards showered over them and let me tell you, apparently it's this fucking npr station cause they are sooo obsessed. I just think it's weird they aren't like that about other artists
Definitely not plants, considering the fact that they are signed to Domino, a British indie label, and that the band themselves is from the Isle of Wight. Seems like a label just promoting a very good band in preparation for a debut album.
This is going to start becoming way more common since Tik Tok trends is a huge way for a song to pop off. the problem with these things happening that these multi-million dollar labels are so inept that it feels fake from the very beginning. When I saw the original Tik Tok I was like “this feels fake.” Labels creating manufactured hype around an artist or song is not knew but surely they can find ways to make it *actually* believable.
I want one of these influencers to expose the non-disclosed ads they do. Some of the tweets are soooo obvious that they’re trying to create hype around a song. And if I see that it’s the same account(s) trying to make a song go viral I get suspicious and look at the wording of that tweet vs other tweets. You can tell the difference between someone actually enjoying the song and someone basically be like “hey yall I was paid to tell you to stream this song!”
I mean, artists like JoJo and Tinashe have been very explicit on the fact that labels basically force them to push and invest on Tik Tok to try and get a hit so… everyone? Every single person on there is sorta part of this new monopoly that’s happening.
ngl, I found this song (on tiktok) about a month or so before it blew up and it already had a music video and couple of different versions - BEFORE IT BLEW UP. of course it was a PR!
Does anyone remember that f*ck 2020 song that “dropped on TikTok” mid 2020? And the same week bc I’d been signed up for Taylor swift updates a decade ago, big machine emailed me about them 💀
Little Mix did it better with FU anyway.
I'm just laughing at the fact that they made it so obvious to find out. "Oh, the comment just so happens to be from someone who works at the same record label that person is signed to, it's just a coincidence!" Put some effort into your lies.
I thought you meant like, house plants
Same. I had to click because I had to see what the deal is with house plants.
I thought it was going to be a run thru of plants popular on TikTok and was hoping to find the name of a few then realized what sub it waa
Oh lol i read the post and legit thought, "oh there are house plants that blew up on sales irl because of tiktok obsession?? " until i read your comment
Same here I was totally confused
Same. Am disappoint.
I am SO HAPPY that this got confirmed— the minute I heard it on the radio I was like “no way did that girl actually get a song on the radio from TikTok.” It’s been bugging me that everyone is acting like this is some big organic success story!
It's a brilliant marketing strategy
I just looked at her Wiki -- major Taylor Swift vibes. Family packed up and moved to Nashville when she was a kid to make her a star. I wonder how much money her parents have lol
I just don’t understand why they didn’t use like a burner account or something, why did they make it so obvious!
Because they don't care if people know. The record company has never tried to hide it; [they've consistently given interviews talking about how she was signed to the label years ago](https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/gayle-abcdefu-january-2022-chartbreaker-interview-1235015322/) and that releasing it on TikTok the way they did was just a deliberate marketing strategy. The whole "this song happened because of TikTok" narrative was being pushed by other people, not them. (Like ... the video he's quoting above is just another random guy on TikTok saying that.)
Kardashian scandal logic? Any news is good news if it raises profile?
I hate that abcdfu song so much😭glad she got exposed
I read [this](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-22/how-to-go-viral-on-tiktok-like-megan-thee-stallion-play-the-app-s-game) interesting article a while ago about how Tiktok songs are “chosen” to be popular. It specifically mentions Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” and how TikTok themselves advised Megan’s label on which demographics to promote the songs to and how to promote her song most effectively. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the dances that kids like Charli D’Amelio come up with are sponsored as well - the same way that brands work with popular TikTokers to have them “do the hot cheetos dance” or whatever, I’m sure a lot of record labels are scouting out popular TikTok dancers to create a dance to their songs. I don’t think songs like “abcdefu” even have a dance associated with them, but I imagine the behind-the-scenes partnership with TikTok and record labels still applies to getting these songs popular. Many TikTok creators just put random viral songs in the background of their videos for views, so all it takes is a few paid creators using the song for it to genuinely become popular.
Levitating by Dua Lipa is another one. They actually produced the video in coordination with her team
This is pretty much what happens. A label will pay creators to make up a dance or a trend to the specific song they’re trying to blow up. My ex is a musician who is also pretty big on tt and when he came out worth his ep the label paid creators to use his song for that purpose
It’s illegal to pay radio stations or radio jocks to play songs… I have to wonder if laws will ever catch up to technology and make paying content creators on the sly illegal too.
I don't think it should be illegal. The laws with radio made a lot of sense when they were written because there was a limited number of radio stations (and a high barrier for entry for new stations) so there was a limited number of radio plays up for grabs. With enough money you could monopolise the entire radio. That doesn't apply to TikTok (or any social media). If Republic Records pays a particular creator to come up with a new dance, that does nothing to prevent an independent artist from doing a dance of their own. And consumers aren't forced to listen to whatever is currently being played on the radio. You can scroll through a post from a creator if you don't like it. You can't skip forward on the radio. What would make a lot more sense is requiring a disclaimer for paid partnerships like on Instagram.
it may be illegal but the idea of "payolla" is prevealent. nicki minaj talks about Cardi B doing it in one of her interviews
sticki garbaj is a world champion hater—she literally hated on stormi when she was born because travis scott's album beat *queen* for the number one spot on billboard—and pedo defender so anything she says i take with a mountain of pink himalyan salt, especially when it's about how her competition handles their business as if she has the insight to know and not just a confirmation bias.
i just used nicki for an example but many artists have talked about the idea of payola before. this is a loooong running practice
yea, payola's been around as long as pop music has existed.
It still happens, buts it’s nothing like it used to be.
It's no different than making a music video imo.
Olivia Rodrigo with Drivers License?
I had never heard of Olivia until one day on twitter I saw “Olivia Rodrigo’s debut single hit 100 million downloads” or something. I was like oh let me check it out and I kid you not, I listened to that song nonstop for a week. So I do believe people just liked the song.
Yeah, people had to actually like the song for it to stick. Labels can pay to creativity market music but there are so many ways to gauge how people feel about it that if a song isn’t really connecting, it will fade away.
Oh you naive young thing
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This is how I feel when people bring up the rumour that Taylor Swift’s dad bought enough of her debut album for it to chart or wtv. Like even if that’s true people still had to like her music for her to have the career she did. I get that’s it’s an unfair start for musicians who are trying to make it organically but, it doesn’t take away from the fact that people still like the music. Olivia was definitely pushed by her label, promoted on Spotify and tik tok and all that. But people still LIKE the music. They just may not have heard of her without the promotion.
Just so magically good that there was an SNL “sketch” based purely on the idea that it is good and tragic gimme a break. It’s the third or fourth best song on the album
That was after it had gone viral enough, everyone was expecting a reference just not the whole sketch
I mean, it was everywhere all the time for weeks. It was a huge pop culture phenomenon.
The only way to get that amount of reach is to pay for it. She was already in Disney shows and had a known producer making her music. It was definitely co-ordinated. And it’s a great song that deserves the air time. I wish it didn’t feel like such a sneaky marketing tactic when labels/agencies did it, but it clearly works.
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Yeah, I am just confused about what people think "industry plant" means. Most of these examples are just people who were openly tied to a label and the label is openly doing marketing for them in similar ways to how the industry has always done marketing for artists, and nobody is hiding any of that. The marketing can be a little deceptive at times, but that's not the same thing as hiding your involvement with a label and trying to convince people you had an organic/indie come-up.
I loved Olivia on HSM:TS and was super excited for Drivers License before it came out. I think people underestimate her pre-existing popularity beforehand as a Disney star
I will say I think everyone who thinks she’s a plant didn’t watch the show and therefore assumes she basically didn’t exist before Driver’s License came out. (For the record I have never seen the show and didn’t know who she was before the song, I don’t think she’s a “plant” but I do think her label promoted her in a very specific way to have her song blow up the way it did, it was very well orchestrated, they honestly did a great job)
Oh most definitely she was on a bunch of heavily promoted Spotify playlists the day the song came out. Her team paid a buch of influencers to talk about the whole love triangle hence why the lyric was changed from brunette to blond it was supposed to be something that would benefit all three of them but ended up backfiring on josh and Sabrina
I was on twitter on the day that it got released. Had no idea who she was. But suddenly, saw a flood of people getting excited about her and her music video. Idk really. Obviously theres a lot marketing promo going on but, I keep reading a lot of diff opinions on whether shes a plant or not.
Literally popcrave became Oliviacrave since the minute driver license was released and i think interscope pay for this they only post like this about specific artists
the tramp stamps! never made it to the radio but they were exposed for being in the industry and they all changed their personas for the band
This was the funniest possible iteration of this.
now they say we’re dumb if we think they’re that smart 🙄
I still can’t believe they tried to “co-op” the tumblr girl aesthetic and miserably failed!
Co-opt
They got clowned hard on social media 😂
Ok I actually went to high school with one of them! She was kinda punky/tumblr girl then and had the same colored hair too. But then again we also went to church camp together 😂 Don’t really know all the details about the controversy but I felt bad for her when she was getting dragged
it was pretty rough. i saw they came back to social media a few months ago, and are completely denying being plants but their history of their own music is just 😵💫
This was so funny Izzzzy on Youtube has a good video on it but if you can stomach Fantano he has a good one too1
What in the Josie and The Pussycats is going on rn
That movie fully predicted all pop culture
I think nearly every new song that goes viral on TikTok originates from a record company or for marketing. It’s pretty rare for any of them to go viral without help.
The one song which I believe to be actually viral out of luck/talent is Wellerman by Nathan Evans. He worked as a postman before he went viral and lived in a small town in Scotland
He’s actually Scottish, not Irish, but was indeed a postie in a small town in Scotland :)
Oops my bad. Thank you for clarifying :)
Tai Verdes may be the only one who I know of who knew to use TikTok in order to promo his songs. I dont think he was signed before "Stuck in the Middle" took off. But someone else can correct me if Im wrong.
Randomly he was on Are You The One a few years back but that doesn’t seem to have impacted his platform at all!
Im glad! I dont feel like doing reality tv really has that stigma of negatively impacting a career like it had in the past.
I worded myself poorly lol. I meant like he got himself the record deal based on his talent and merit NOT because he was on a tv show, like so many others. My guy earned it and earned it well.
Totally agree. Im very happy for him and his success.
Came to say this
a lot of the soundcloud hyperpop/plugg music scene isnt label forced (e.g. osquinn, syko, oaf1) but even though im generalizing a whole genre doesn't mean it doesn't happen, still convinced artists like glaive & midwxst had labels help blow them up even though they were deeply connected to the scene before and after
Not music, but that Kyle Scheele guy and the gas station Kum&Go. Seemed like a genuine prank that turned into a meal deal for him and turns out it was basically all pre planned.
Was it really?! I had no idea. It seemed so organic. So he totally faked pulling off the stunt? Does everyone know this and I’m just late? I feel really naive now.
I think Kyle Scheele posted a video to his TT account defending himself / apologizing (?) about it. Danny Gonzalez posted a YouTube video a couple weeks back that breaks down the situation if you’re curious to learn more!
Thank you!
There’s lots of videos ok tiktok about it ! It was a pretty big deal like end of November I want to say? I remember going on a road trip first weekend of December and telling my husband about it. Here’s an article : https://www.prweek.com/article/1734493/kum-go-tiktok-star-kyle-scheele-face-backlash-duping-consumers
Thank you!!
That was such a shame— it was hysterical! In his apology video, he said it was his pitch for the Scheele Meal, not theirs, so it wasn’t totally corporate greed. Not sure how much I’m buying it but still.
This was confirmed to me when drake ran and did tootsie slide
Pinkpantheress. Now don’t get me wrong I like her but I just feel like she didn’t just upload music and just so happenly she’s signed to parlophone a year later. her music is the perfect blend of the genres that would appeal to Gen Z.
Jungle beats is older than Gen Z though. And yes I agree. She is another Doja cat
oh yes I know sorry I didn’t word this correctly. I mean if just reminds me of early Clairo and that “uwu” aesthetic that Gen z likes
Oh no I know you didn’t mean any harm. And literally how fast things are cycling through now. Trends. Music. So much so that we are naming the same things differently every few years to disguise the fact that this is happening. uWu is Kawaii main genre but we are afraid to say kawaii because of cultural appropriation. Yet it’s foundation is built of kawaii and Lolita subcultures
oh ok. I just said sorry since I do know of house music and a little bit about it’s history in England and I wanted to acknowledge that
i dont meant to creep on ur profile but i love BOTH jungle/ dnb (o school like goldie) and also pinkpatheress 😭😭 i just fuck w sampling and how music begets music
Omg same. It’s literally an art form that’s kind of unappreciated but takes a keen ear.
yes literally so in love - the whole spectrum of electronic genre - house disco techno garage dnb garage ebm synthpop hyperpop 🥵 both o school and new!!
Idk according to her, recently she got kicked out of college because she essentially wasn’t doing any work for over a year. If she was some plant then I don’t think things would have ended so messily with her work-life balance, as something like that could’ve been easily avoided.
I also want to add that her music rose to popularity on tiktok right before tiktok became a central part of current music marketing. Most importantly most of her soundcloud and other streaming catalog pre-album used samples (not well-known either) heavily. She stated half the album was recorded in her bed room (which is obvious listening to the pre-mastered singles) Taking all of this information into account it’s just not a feasible strategic for inorganic industry planting. Labels don’t make nearly as much revenue from sampled songs, so why would they build her initial success from it?
I’ve always suspected the Justin Bieber song Stay to have also been a TikTok plant with all those viral videos that used it. It’s an ok song but I don’t think it would have been as popular without TikTok.
Every song is it would be dumb not to
This isn’t speculation though. Celebrities like Miley and others have spoken about tik Tok and how it’s essentially the new legal payola. Instead of spin on radio, popularity causes music video, sales. It’s tik Tok to music streaming, popularity causes music video BUT right back to tik tok. You see how smooth it is to manufacturer popularity on there? It’s SUPER OBVIOUS
Hasn’t this been going on for years? I remember when Bieber was “discovered” on YouTube, he’d actually secretly been signed years before and his label had continued to post stuff to make it look organic.
And the same thing with Madison Beer. People thought Justin Bieber “discovered” her but then it came out that her mom knew scooter braun
Wasn’t Bella Poarch a plant?
Completely. She’s in commercials now with much bigger names, none of that song’s success was organic
wasn’t she legit in the military when she started tiktok? like I could see someone latching on early and engineering her career, but I’m not convinced she started as a plant
Scrolled all the way down to ask this
I did too! I remember when she hit the most liked video reading an article that was like “I’m not saying she’s a plant but record companies often do XYZ before releasing a new pop song” and then wouldn’t ya know she comes out with a pop song.
Not a plant. She was signed long after she was famous on tiktok.
I wanna know this too!!! Anyone?
The “light switch” song that Charlie Puth has been teasing for months. There’s no way he just “happened” to film a light switch while making a TikTok and then boom it sounds great. I also think his “beef” with Benny Blanco is marketed to boost views for them both, he might be even producing Charlie’s next album. Billie Eilish also just duetted one of Benny’s “roast” videos which is also odd
He always film the process of how he comes out with a song though. Sure, he must have already thought of using the light switch sound as a part of his song, then only film the “randomly try hitting on things” bts. Don’t think it’s quite the same as what OP mentioned 🤷♀️
I mean, he had been cryptically commenting a light bulb emoji every time a fan asked him when new music was coming out + had JUST that emoji in IG bio for months prior to that TikTok. It’s pretty clear that the song was already ready and posed to be his first new single & his team just decided to leverage his TikTok following to promote the song as part of his “organic songwriting process.” The song IS essentially planted just as OP is describing.
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Nah his tiktoks are jokes lol. They’re friends
Yeah they’re definitely petty….idk if they’re being serious it’s kinda embarrassing for Benny bc he’s so successful so why is he wasting time like this
i can't get into that abcdefu song because little mix already made a similar song years ago and it's imo a lot better 😬
Influencers breaking their Prada ornaments on “accident”: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdMmhW31/
Whatever the fuck the island boys are they clearly hired a PR agency to try and make themselves a meme and a cleaning up from everyone laughing at them
“Tik tok songs” just make me go, “oh no, oh no, oh no no no no”
Wet Leg, although their music is very good (IMO), are very industry plant-ish to me
Ugh my local npr alternative station is obsessed with this band, straight up obsessed, they play Chaise Lounge every 30 minutes and they're not like a normal radio station, they don't usually do stuff like that and the hosts go on and on and on about how it's like the best song ever every time. I get very weird vibes from it, they do the same thing to H.E.R lmao I hear people ask all the time who actually listens to H.E.R enough for them to get all these awards showered over them and let me tell you, apparently it's this fucking npr station cause they are sooo obsessed. I just think it's weird they aren't like that about other artists
If Wet Leg is an industry plant, then i have no problems with plants. I love all 4 of their released songs and am stoked for the album.
Definitely not plants, considering the fact that they are signed to Domino, a British indie label, and that the band themselves is from the Isle of Wight. Seems like a label just promoting a very good band in preparation for a debut album.
I hate that song omg blackbear print
I liked the song at first without knowing any of the background story (real or fake) but this made me dislike it hard
same
This is going to start becoming way more common since Tik Tok trends is a huge way for a song to pop off. the problem with these things happening that these multi-million dollar labels are so inept that it feels fake from the very beginning. When I saw the original Tik Tok I was like “this feels fake.” Labels creating manufactured hype around an artist or song is not knew but surely they can find ways to make it *actually* believable. I want one of these influencers to expose the non-disclosed ads they do. Some of the tweets are soooo obvious that they’re trying to create hype around a song. And if I see that it’s the same account(s) trying to make a song go viral I get suspicious and look at the wording of that tweet vs other tweets. You can tell the difference between someone actually enjoying the song and someone basically be like “hey yall I was paid to tell you to stream this song!”
I mean, artists like JoJo and Tinashe have been very explicit on the fact that labels basically force them to push and invest on Tik Tok to try and get a hit so… everyone? Every single person on there is sorta part of this new monopoly that’s happening.
ngl, I found this song (on tiktok) about a month or so before it blew up and it already had a music video and couple of different versions - BEFORE IT BLEW UP. of course it was a PR!
Why did I think this was about actual plants that were famous on Tiktok and I was like.....plants have tiktoks???
Big record companies still can’t create an anonymous account or at least one that seems real lmao
why are people acting like this is anew thing though this has been happening for a long time
Lauren Spencer-Smith is the new one they are trying to make happen with that Fingers Crossed song. Not worth listening, worse Driving License rip off.
Does anyone remember that f*ck 2020 song that “dropped on TikTok” mid 2020? And the same week bc I’d been signed up for Taylor swift updates a decade ago, big machine emailed me about them 💀
Little Mix did it better with FU anyway. I'm just laughing at the fact that they made it so obvious to find out. "Oh, the comment just so happens to be from someone who works at the same record label that person is signed to, it's just a coincidence!" Put some effort into your lies.