MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by music data analytics firm Chartmetric.
TikTok wants to remind you how important it is to the music business.
To that end, in the past few years the platform has started running analyses that compare music charts to viral trends on its platform.
And the latest data point from that effort shows that, in Germany, the world’s fourth-largest recorded music market, one in three tracks that hit the top position on the charts went viral first on TikTok in 2024.
Additionally, more than one in four of the songs that made it to the German Top 100 Singles Chart in 2024 were “first successful” on TikTok, on average 13 days before entering the chart, TikTok’s analysis found.
That includes not only well-known German artists like Ayliva, Shirin David and Helene Fischer, but international stars like Miley Cyrus and Disturbed as well, TikTok recently wrote on its German-language blog.
“The path to many chart successes begins on TikTok,” the ByteDance-owned platform boasted.
TikTok offered several examples of this, including Ayliva’s hit track Lieb mich.
“After video views and creations peaked in early February 2024, the song entered the charts shortly thereafter and immediately reached the top spot a week later,” TikTok said.
Earlier this year, Helene Fischer and Florian Silbereisen’s Schau mal herein entered the singles charts shortly after it became the most-heard piece of music among TikTok users in Germany, and 35,000 videos featuring the song were posted.
That’s not only true for current music; catalog music also gets plenty of attention on TikTok, and sometimes that virality propels a track back onto the charts years after its release.
“The path to many chart successes begins on TikTok.”
TikTok
“Over 50 catalog songs made their way onto the Billboard Global 200 via the platform in 2024, primarily hits from the 80s, 2000s, and 2010s,” TikTok said, citing data produced in partnership with market monitor Luminate.
“Songs like Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers and Linger by The Cranberries celebrated their debut in the global top 200 after their viral success on TikTok.”
TikTok said the “best example” of this was Alphaville‘s Forever Young, which turned 40 years old in 2024. “The band was rewarded with the attention of the TikTok community, which viewed the video millions of times, incorporated it into their videos, and thus paved the way back into the charts,” TikTok said.
According to a survey of TikTok users in Germany, the favorite eras for catalog music are the 90s (48%), the 80s (41%), and the 2000s (41%).
Also last year, Peter Schilling’s Major Tom (völlig losgelöst), the official goal anthem of the German national team for the European football championship, became a hit again 42 years after its release. The track was used in more than 80,000 video creations before it entered the singles charts 42 years after its first appearance, setting a record, TikTok said.
“I’m overwhelmed that my song, in its original version from 1982, has experienced further success after more than 40 years, thanks to the TikTok community, and has entered the top 6 of the singles charts,” Schilling commented.
“Music knows no boundaries – it connects generations and always finds new ways to touch hearts.”
“TikTok’s influence goes far beyond simply discovering music – our new music chart analysis shows this.”
Charlotte Stahl, TikTok
Charlotte Stahl, Head of Music Partnerships EMEA at TikTok, added: “TikTok’s influence goes far beyond simply discovering music – our new music chart analysis shows this.
“The community decides which songs are shared, loved, and thus catapulted to the top of the charts. I’m particularly pleased that TikTok gives artists of all genres and generations the chance to be discovered and heard by a large audience.”
This is the latest in a series of data released by TikTok highlighting its central role in music discovery and taste-making.
Last December, TikTok released data showing that 13 of the 16 tracks that reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 were in some way linked to a trend on TikTok. And in February, the platform said that 84% of the songs that reached the Billboard Global 200 in 2024 had gone viral on TikTok first.
The news of TikTok’s impact on the charts in Germany arrives alongside the expansion of the company’s SoundOn distribution service in the country.
TikTok recently cited SoundOn success stories from the German market, such as Austrian DJ ElyOaks, who has accumulated 770,000 TikTok followers and saw his track Borderline reach No. 17 on German charts after going viral.
SoundOn has seen over 1.1 million artists register to access its services since launching in 2022.
According to its website, SoundOn currently counts 1.158 million “partners and growing”. MBW understands this to mean artists who have registered (i.e. signed up) on the platform.
Of these registered artists, TikTok noted today, SoundOn has seen “hundreds of thousands” of acts release music and generate revenue on the platform.
In other Europe-related TikTok news, the platform recently revealed it had reached the milestone of 200 million monthly users in Europe, up from 175 million a year earlier.
Chartmetric is the all-in-one platform for artists and music industry professionals, providing comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data for everyone to create successful careers in music.Music Business Worldwide
