Scrolling TikTok now feels like walking into the cafeteria on the last day of high school. At one table, influencers offer their handles on other platforms, telling people how to keep in touch. At another, users share best-hits montages of TikTok over the years like they’re flicking through yearbooks: the TikTok Rizz Party to Charli D’Amelio to the hyper-energized kid wonder Topher. Others remain in denial, blithely posting memes like they’re not about to say goodbye. I’ve been in denial myself, thinking TikTok would be bought or the ruling slashed before the U.S. government bans it on Sunday, January 19. Unless there’s a hail mary—which seems extremely unlikely with the Supreme Court upholding the ban—it’s over. TikTok’s time in America is up. In an instant, thousands of creators will be searching for new ways to maintain their livelihoods and fanbases they’ve spent years building.Enriching or eroding brains, empowering “digital creatives,” or spewing forth slop and sludge: Whether you despise or delight in TikTok, its banning will hit music culture hard. Over the last seven years, the app has rewired the industry: squishing tracks into frantic blips of hooky intensity, convincing labels to sign one-off viral stars, spawning a cottage industry of sped-up remixes. It’s drastically changed the way artists gain traction and promote themselves. Spotify’s “Viral 50” chart basically reflects whatever’s popping on TikTok in a given week. So what happens when TikTok disappears? Does the music industry instantly revert to the prehistoric epoch of 2017—will Snapchat become the hottest major label scouting ground? Will popstars remember how to write bridges?“People are massively panicking. I don’t know anybody who’s like, ‘This will be fine,’” says Olivia Shalhoup, the CEO of Amethyst Collab, a digital marketing agency that’s worked with stars like Trippie Redd and Aminé. “Most of the panic comes from the uncertainty—there’s no clear path to replicate [TikTok] followers. A lot of artists are losing their biggest audience.”As usually happens whenever Big Tech gets its tendrils around the music industry, the ones who’ll suffer most are indie musicians. The avenue for DIY artists to blow up from their bedrooms will evaporate. “It’s going to become a less democratized landscape,” Shalhoup says. Other shortform hubs like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts will absorb many TikTok refugees, but they don’t have the same hyper-charged music discovery algorithm that propels niche experiments and soon-to-be hits as opposed to catalog and already popular songs. The app’s user interface was built around musical trends, whereas Instagram and YouTube want to push viewers to click on creators’ feeds or longform videos. I can’t think of any musician who blew up via Reels or Shorts, but I can name dozens of TikTok-driven breakouts stars and viral smashes.The Spanish rapper Bb trickz, who appeared on Charli XCX’s BRAT remix album and has racked up over 2.6 million TikTok followers posting fit checks and dances, credits the platform with helping her rise and says it’s a special platform because “genuine content works.” She’s in denial about it getting banned, but thinks that if it does happen, it’ll hurt rising artists who crave a shot at being known. She can’t see herself switching to post on another shortform platform: “Nahhh, I hate Reels.”
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