Digitization in the music industry has empowered new-generation singers to rise to popularity by enabling them to skip the common struggles involved in the process of becoming popular.
Applications like TikTok gave singers like Tai Verdes traction to gain the number one spot on Spotify for his song, “Stuck in the Middle,” when the stalwarts chose to ignore his talent. The features of these short video formats helped amateurs become overnight singing sensations.
While TikTok garnered 1 billion downloads in 2019, its growth was short-lived because of its ban, which was a blow – not to TikTok but to the underdogs of the music industry.
Nevertheless, other applications stepped in to fill the void with their short video features:
- Instagram Reels: Probably the best bae of new millennials – Instagram, never disappointed its users. It was the first application to snatch the limelight with its Reels in 2020. The short video feature of Instagram comes with a robust music library and an array of cool effects for creating sensational, short, funny, and musical reels.
- Firework: Maybe not as popular as Instagram but Firework stands out from its competitors in many ways. It can embed all your short video clips onto your website with a specially designed web player. This allows website visitors to directly interact with your Firework videos, bringing more traffic to your website.
- Dubsmash: Who can forget Dubmash? Before TikTok made an entrance, Dubsmash was already ruling the world with 50 million downloads across 192 countries. Here, users can easily record videos of themselves lip-syncing to various audio clippings of their choice.
- Chingari – We call it the ‘desi-version’ of TikTok. This original Indian short video app has all the features that TikTok had and many more. Chingari is gaining traction steadily, with over 2.5 million downloads in 2020.
How Short Videos Changed the Music Industry
The proverbial 15 seconds of fame initiated by TikTok showed the world how easy it is to become a virtual sensation overnight. Creators tapped into the opportunity to demonstrate their best musical talent online. Moreover, these apps resonate well with the stakeholders of the Indian Music Industry and others across the globe. The stakeholders are finding pools of raw talents and an opportunity to reach out to the global audience with their music.
These apps became their arsenals for promotion and revenue generation. Also, the fact that musical fame is no longer restricted to a chosen few in the industry is undeniable. Singers like Ranu Mondal and Sahdev are living examples.
It is undeniable that there are so many untamed talents in India and across the globe. But opportunities to make it big in the music industry always come with a price. However short video apps have made it possible for undiscovered talents to gain attention. This change has opened doors for raw talents to find quick fame for their music online.
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