A Study on Music Consumption Behavior and Marketing Strategies on the TikTok Platform
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62951/ijecm.v3i1.1150Keywords:
Consumption Behavior, Digital Music, Recommendation Algorithms, TikTok, User Generated ContentAbstract
The development of digital technology has significantly transformed music consumption and marketing strategies in the creative industry. The shift from physical media to digital platforms, especially short-form video-based social media like TikTok, has created a new ecosystem that emphasizes interactivity, community participation, and organic music distribution. TikTok allows users to incorporate song snippets into creative content, positioning music as both entertainment and a symbol of digital identity. This shift reveals that music popularity is now primarily driven by recommendation algorithms and user-generated content rather than traditional promotion. This study adopts a qualitative descriptive approach with phenomenological analysis to explore the relationship between music consumption behavior and marketing strategies on TikTok. Findings indicate that algorithms act as digital curators, influencing audience preferences, while user participation accelerates the viral spread of songs through challenges, remixes, and content reproduction. Effective music marketing strategies must be data-driven, trend-responsive, and capable of leveraging users' emotional and social engagement. TikTok thus serves not only as a distribution platform but also as a space for constructing global popular culture. This study contributes to digital media scholarship and offers practical implications for designing sustainable marketing strategies in the ever-evolving digital ecosystem.
Downloads
References
Aguiar, L., & Waldfogel, J. (2018). Platforms, promotion, and product discovery: Evidence from Spotify playlists. Journal of Industrial Economics, 66(3), 527–557. https://doi.org/10.1111/joie.12190
Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more. Hyperion.
Anderson, C. W., Bell, E., & Shirky, C. (2020). Post-industrial media: Adapting to the present. Columbia University Press.
Aral, S., & Walker, D. (2012). Identifying influential and susceptible members of social networks. Science, 337(6092), 337–341. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215842
Baym, N. K. (2018). Playing to the crowd: Musicians, audiences, and the intimate work of connection. New York University Press.
Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: Why things catch on. Simon & Schuster.
Burgess, J., & Green, J. (2018). YouTube: Online video and participatory culture (2nd ed.). Polity Press.
Citton, Y. (2017). The ecology of attention. Polity Press.
Datta, H., Knox, G., & Bronnenberg, B. J. (2018). Changing their tune: How consumers' adoption of online streaming affects music consumption and discovery. Marketing Science, 37(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1051
Dewan, S., & Ramaprasad, J. (2014). Music blogging, online sampling, and the long tail. Information Systems Research, 25(3), 1–17.
Eriksson, M., Fleischer, R., Johansson, A., Snickars, P., & Vonderau, P. (2019). Spotify teardown: Inside the black box of streaming music. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10932.001.0001
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2013). The cultural industries (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2019). The cultural industries (4th ed.). Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781036234232
IFPI. (2023). Global music report 2023. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York University Press.
Kaye, D. B. V., Chen, X., & Zeng, J. (2021). The co-evolution of two Chinese mobile short video apps: Parallel platformization of Douyin and TikTok. Computers in Human Behavior, 115, 106633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106633
Kjus, Y. (2016). Musical exploration via streaming services: The Norwegian experience. Popular Communication, 14(3), 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2016.1179646
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing management (15th ed.). Pearson.
Morris, J. W. (2015). Selling digital music, formatting culture. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520962934
Morris, J. W., & Powers, D. (2015). Control, curation and musical experience in streaming music services. Creative Industries Journal, 8(2), 106–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/17510694.2015.1090222
Pariser, E. (2011). The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. Penguin Press.
Prey, R. (2016). Musica analytica: The datafication of listening. In R. Nowak & A. Whelan (Eds.), Networked music cultures (pp. 31–48). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58290-4_3
Prey, R. (2020). Locating power in platformization: Music streaming playlists and curatorial power. Social Media + Society, 6(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120933291
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). Free Press.
Vrontis, D., Makrides, A., Christofi, M., & Thrassou, A. (2021). Social media influencer marketing: A systematic review, integrative framework and future research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 134, 304–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.05.039
Zulli, D., & Zulli, D. J. (2020). Extending the Internet meme: Conceptualizing technological mimesis and imitation publics on TikTok. Social Media + Society, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948991
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Economics, Commerce, and Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
