How to Promote Your Music with TikTok Edits

I don’t do TikTok.

I barely even know how to use the app. When I release a new song, sometimes I’ll post the video I made for Reels, but the text usually gets obscured by TikTok’s interface. Don’t care.

That’s not to say I’ve never tried promoting my music there. Back in 2021 I reviewed two influencer marketing platforms: Breakr and SpaceLoud. They both generated a bunch of views of videos with my music in them, but didn’t move the needle long-term.

What I have tried are AMVs (Anime Music Videos) on YouTube. They’re exactly what they sound like: a music video made from anime footage. This one from a couple of years back has 10K views:

Lately I’ve been seeing more AMV edits, which are shorter and more tightly synchronized to the music. Here’s a recent one by XENOZ (640K subscribers) with 106K views, 9.3K likes, and 639 comments to date:

XENOZ is such a respected editor that his fans, other editors mostly, rip the audio and make their own edits with my song. Right now a search for “death machine amv” on YouTube turns up five other videos.

Which brings us to TikTok edits. They’re basically like AMV edits (in fact, some are AMV edits) but they can feature any pop culture phenomenon: actors, movies, TV shows, characters, musicians, athletes, Pokémon, you name it.

When I learned that Partnered Projects offers a TikTok edits campaign, I had to try it.

Their network of creators averages over 100K followers per channel, and they create the edits themselves. You just need to supply the TikTok sound URL and an audio file:

That’s the package I went for, paid out of my own pocket. I figured “Death Machine” was my best bet since it had already proven itself as a popular AMV edit.

I had trouble finding my TikTok sound URL and ended up using my daughter’s phone to pull it up. The problem was that I had a Business Account, which was required for TikTok ads (don’t bother). Once I switched back to Personal, my music appeared in search.

I placed my order on a Saturday. On Tuesday, my promotion was approved. On Thursday, I received a link to my custom dashboard. The following Friday, my promotion was complete.

That was nearly a month ago. Since then, the view count has continued to rise and even steepen:

Here’s the most viewed TikTok, apparently from a Netflix show called Insatiable that really doesn’t look like my sort of thing:

@moonlliqht she wanted to make history and that is what this is | cc: daydreamin (me) twixtor/rsmb/zooms/cc/sc/panning/flicker: me (ultimate pack 2024 version) #aftereffects #edit #insatiable #debbyryan #insatiableedit #debbyryanedit #pattybladell ♬ Death Machine – Color Theory

It was cross-posted to Instagram Reels, where it has 188K views, 17K likes, and 73 comments.

Here’s an actual AMV edit, from Tokyo Revengers. I watched the first season and didn’t feel inspired to watch the second.

@yuriinai Tenjiku … #tokyorevengers #tokyorevengersedit #tokyorevengersseason3 #kakucho #kakuchohitto #izana #izanakurokawa #anime #animeedit #royal117sqd #kamesquad ♬ Death Machine – Color Theory

Here’s a cool Brad Pitt one with Fight Club footage and super tight audio sync:

https://www.tiktok.com/@brdpittt/video/7348797270969568544

You get the idea. We’ve also got Timothée Chalamet, Outer Banks, Daniel Craig as James Bond, Winter Soldier, Dr. Strange & Scarlet Witch, Cobra Kai, Selena Gomez, Game of Thrones or maybe House of the Dragon (I’ve only read the books), and Gracie Abrams.

You can watch them all, plus an anime edit that someone posted on their own before the campaign, on the sound page.

Partnered Projects promised 10-15 custom edits, and delivered 15:

Partnered Projects Dashboard (click to enlarge)

The video with the little exclamation point next to it wouldn’t load, so I emailed them about it. Apparently the curator archived the post and wasn’t able to unarchive it.

No biggie. The bonus Instagram cross-post I mentioned earlier more than makes up for it.

Okay, so I got what I paid for. What was the point?

The ideal outcome would be that other TikTok users start using the sound in their own videos and it blows up. That hasn’t happened yet, but considering the trajectory of the view count, it still could.

Failing that, I’d want to see a bump in streams on other platforms. On Spotify, not so much:

I recently pulled the track from my own playlist, which didn’t help.

Things look more promising on Apple Music. From my weekly email:

I can’t think of any reason beyond this campaign why the track would see a 152% boost in streams, which corresponds with an obvious spike in Apple Music for Artists:

YouTube showed a noticeable bump as well:

It’s safe to say that TikTok and Instagram users are hearing the track and that a small percentage of them are seeking it out on other platforms.

Any long-term impact remains to be seen, but clearly the campaign has plenty of life left in it. I’m unlikely to follow up with a second post, but I’ll probably mention it in my (free) end-of-month email newsletter.

In summary, with over a half million views and counting, I’m impressed!

If you’d like to try out Partnered Projects for yourself, you can get 10% off any campaign (not just TikTok) using coupon code “BRIANHAZARD” (no quotes) here.

I’ll make a small commission, which will go towards further experiments.

How are you promoting your music on TikTok? Share your thoughts and results in the comments!

UPDATE 5/31/24: After another month, total views and engagements have tripled. And here I am, still not famous.