• TikTok Spotlight will offer independent artists direct exposure to music industry leaders
  • The program is held in partnership with 21 leading record labels and publishers in Japan and Korea, and features 26 top Japanese and Korean producers, songwriters and singers as mentors and judges

TOKYO, April 4, 2019 - TikTok, the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos, today announced the launch of "TikTok Spotlight," an innovative musician program to discover and support independent and unsigned artists. TikTok Spotlight is an opportunity for musicians to build a community of followers and showcase their original and creative work to a global audience. As part of the program, TikTok will open a special channel for musicians to submit their music, making it available for TikTok users around the world to discover and use in their videos.

As a platform that allows users to express their creative ideas through content related to regional cultures and trends, TikTok has become a platform for originality and creativity where the works of many local artists can go viral. Music is a special part of TikTok's creative DNA. The launch of the TikTok Spotlight program helps TikTok discover hidden talent and cultivate the latest hits, and better enables rising musicians to gain exposure.

Kicking off the first season from Japan and Korea, TikTok Spotlight collaborates with 21 major industry players to discover and support the growth of independent artists. TikTok will work with partners to feature rising musicians and their best work on TikTok and various music platforms, bringing them direct exposure to music fans as well as industry leaders, such as labels, publishers, artist management agencies, agents, topline songwriters, producers, and more.

TikTok Spotlight: First season

TikTok Spotlight will officially launch on April 5. Musicians who participate in the program can create an account and submit their original content through the TikTok Spotlight Portal (www.tiktok.com/tiktokspotlight ) during the submission period. Once cleared, the original music will go up in the app and be promoted in TikTok's featured playlist, and shared with TikTok users for content creation. TikTok musicians will also be officially verified on their pages with a unique badge.

The program was unveiled in Seoul on March 28 and in Tokyo today, together with a lineup of superstars and top producers from Japan and Korea. Over the next five months, TikTok Spotlight will feature two rounds of competition to select the Top 100 and Top 18 players to advance to the next round based on the popularity of their music and the judge panel's opinions.

At the end of the season, the top 5-10 musicians will be selected through the final round and provided with production opportunities and other prizes.  

TikTok, the new and upcoming platform for musicians

TikTok has been closely collaborating with the music community in Japan and Korea to co-promote artists and music events, resulting in a pool of diversified content and music. TikTok has worked with dozens of A-list musicians such as BTS, Blackpink, DA PUMP, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu on promoting their latest hits and helping them engage with a global audience.

In 2018, there were more than 280 official hashtag challenges created on TikTok Japan, most of which using J-Pop music and original soundtracks. One of TikTok Spotlight's star supporters, Kana Adachi, gained over 240,000 fans on TikTok in just a month. Her single "I am in love with you now" (私今あなたに恋をしています) has achieved over 370 million views on the platform since July 2018.