CREATOR, TIKTOK
HOLLY H APPEARING ON: UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Holly H is Britain’s biggest TikTok star, and with 16.5 million fans and 392.5m likes on the platform, her influence on the music industry is getting bigger. Here, she analyses her impact so far and talks about helping artists…
WORDS: BEN HOMEWOOD
Just how much sway does influencer marketing have over the music industry? “It’s crazy how much this world influences music now, it’s gone from influencing it to pretty much controlling it. Every single human being is online, even my grandparents are using TikTok. My grandad has Instagram now and he sometimes DMs me emojis! The whole world is online, and that’s contributed greatly to how much influence it has. Using songs in online videos has spread songs that we might not have been able to hear in the past if we were just listening to the radio or Spotify or Apple playlists. All this has been very controlled by the music industry, and now it isn’t so much because people hear something, they share it and it has the ability to go to everyone.”
Do you think there are more opportunities for songs to break? “There are so many small artists or random people in their rooms who are like, ‘I want to make a song’, and they’ll just do it and sometimes people will gravitate towards that and they’ll end up with a record deal or a publishing deal. Just from one video. That’s really cool.”
How has your relationship with the industry developed? “People are just becoming more and more interested. Those who were sceptical have been even more exposed to [what I do] through more lockdowns and not having as much to do, or even their kids showing them perhaps, like, ‘Look at this mum and dad!’ More labels and artists are willing to work with influencers. I say that, but I hate that word, it makes you sound like an ad girl [laughs]. But they want to work with creators and they want to have creators come up with their own ideas for their music. Artists are more open to letting creators influence their music and to using the parts of the songs we’re passionate about. People have started to value their opinions more.”
Can you describe that change in attitude?
“It’s changed drastically, people are less like, ‘Oh, maybe one day we can do something together…’ Now, that’s turned into, ‘We should definitely do something.’ People have started to realise that they don’t just want to work with creators to promote a song. Most creators wouldn’t want to be a form of advertisement because it cheapens the look to their audience. So, instead of being an advert, they want to be more involved. That’s why I love it when labels come to me and want me to do a livestream with an artist and have a chat and do something more organic. It’s so much more beneficial to growing anything, whether for the creator or the artist. Just using a song isn’t always necessarily the right way to go.”
What have you learned about the music business? “I’ve learned how records are made. It’s very cool to have been able to dissect how people decide to push music and why they’ve made certain songs. When you hear from the artists, that helps a creator to give someone’s song a message. If you understand things more, it’s easier to create something authentic and real.”
musicweek.com
FLYING START
Meet the winners of the Start-Up Initiative, our
competition for new tech companies...
CLICKNCLEAR
On a mission to ensure fair compensation for artists and songwriters, ClickNClear offers a catalogue of officially licensed music for use in performance sports. The growing business boasts Sony Music Publishing, Warner Music, and more among its client base.
MYPART
A graduate of Universal Music Group’s Abbey Road Red and Capitol Records’ new tech talent scheme, MyPart uses AI to analyse songs for the purposes of A&R, sync and more.
With support from The Orchard, Live Nation and others, Paperchain seeks to help musicians maximise streaming revenue via expert tracking tools and a direct pay function for labels, services companies and DSPs.
PAPERCHAIN
Promoting the message, “traditional deals don’t work” is winning new tech firm Shout4 admirers across the industry. The platform helps emerging artists to strike bespoke deals in return for a revenue share.
SHOUT4 ROOTNOTE influence their
music now” HOLLY H
“Artists are more open to letting creators
Based in Nashville, financial analytics business RootNote aims to help musicians maintain independent control of their careers.
The Start-Up Initiative is for new independent music tech businesses. All five winners will exhibit at the Music Week Tech Summit on March 31.
Music Week | 55
PHOTO: Tom Jackson
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