6 Ways Music Can Make You Go Viral on TikTok

One thing that makes TikTok stand out amongst other social media platforms, is it’s  dependent on sound and music.

Since TikTok is a video-only platform, sound is an inevitable part of any TikTok content creation process.

Users even discover songs they’ve never heard, because everyone is adding a song to their video these days.

In short, music is a very fundamental aspect of TikTok. Whether it’s an ad for your brand, informative content, or some random cat videos, music should be incorporated into your output if you want it to go viral.

Here are a few ways you can take advantage of music on TikTok:

1. Use the right sound

You may be wondering, is there anything like using the wrong sound? Well, yes; on TikTok, there is. The key to getting your content to go viral is knowing which sound to use, which can be any currently-trending song on the platform.

No one sound will always bump your view since the sounds that trend on TikTok always change.

The algorithm is built in a way that trending sounds are more likely to get featured on the #ForYou page. So to get your content shown to many users, it's important to always be up to date on trending sounds.

The sound that gets you many interactions this week may not, the next week. To go viral, you need to spend time finding sounds that users will recognize and enjoy. Most of the videos that go viral at any particular time use a trending sound.

2. Use music to create challenges

So many challenges have gone viral on TikTok and music is one factor that makes these challenges recognizable by users. Some of these challenges are even named after the music used in them.

E.g., the Unlock It (Lock It), Get Up, Savage, and Buss It challenges. All these challenges were named after the music used in the video or for the dance routine.

Jump on trending music as soon as they start and create a unique challenge; this will give your content visibility and real interactions, thereby increasing the chances of your challenge going viral fast.

These challenges should be unique, catchy, and fun. It doesn’t have to be a dance challenge—though dance challenges have proven to do really well on TikTok.

It could be a fashion-related challenge, a cooking challenge, or even an acting challenge. The idea is to show some uniqueness and originality.

3. Use the catchy parts of songs

When using any song for your TikTok videos, stick to its most exciting and catchy parts. Most TikTok videos have a time limit between 15 and 60 seconds.

With this time limit, it’s important to make the video and music attention-grabbing.  Why? Well, so users don't just scroll past your content.

TikTok is designed to be fast paced; therefore, you only have a few seconds to make a good impression and keep users watching your video till the end.

The video will do better if your sound gets users in a sing-along mood, prompting them to dance or repost it. This is why you should use a part of the song that is far from boring.  

If your music can keep users watching, TikTok will push your content out to more viewers—and in no time, your content will be on everyone’s #ForYou page.

4. Duet videos containing popular sounds

TikTok provides a function where content creators can duet posts made by others. This means that users can share two videos side-by-side to be watched.

Whether it’s a singing, cooking or dance video, the original creator can request that other users duet their post.

This presents an opportunity for users to go viral when they duet videos containing sounds that have already gone viral. When the original video has already gone viral because of its sound, duetting the video increases your chances of also going viral.

The duet can be a reaction to the original video or your unique variation of the original video. Feel free to explore your creativity and your engagements will skyrocket.

5. Use the right hashtags

On TikTok, trending sounds always have hashtags associated with them. When you've identified a trending song, reuse both the sound and the hashtags associated with it.

This will give your content more visibility because not only have you used the right sound, the appropriate hashtags will make it more discoverable.

To find the right hashtags, click on the Discover button and search the sound included in your video; go to Hashtags and all the tags relating to the sound in your video will pop up.

It’s best to choose the hashtag with the most views so that your content can get the desired visibility.

6. Interact with content containing trending sounds

Be sure to interact with content of other users, as long as they contain trending sounds. You can do this by liking, commenting, sharing, or duetting.

Doing this, you’ll attract people who have also interacted with such content; plus, it's important to interact with content that is within your niche. The TikTok algorithm can then push your content out to users within that niche.

Music has proven to be a powerful tool used by many TikTokers to go viral. Taking advantage of the sounds available on the platform (and more importantly, trending sounds), your chances of going viral is sure to skyrocket.