How TikTok is rewriting the soundtrack of music discovery

More than six decades after its release, “Pretty Little Baby” by the late Connie Francis found new life on TikTok this year, even landing at No. 5 on the platform’s global Song of the Summer list.

The easy-going song, which sounds like an ode to the devotion of a really sweet pet, was never released as a single. Yet, 63 years later, it became a viral sensation, with creators using it to soundtrack at least 2.4 million mostly wholesome videos featuring babies, kids, pets, and their carefully styled outfits.

At its peak over the summer, “Pretty Little Baby” averaged more than 600,000 daily videos on TikTok, including posts from Kim Kardashian and North West, Kylie Jenner, Brook Monk, Jarred Jermaine, Abbie Herbert, Ariana Greenblatt, Mistermainer, and Samara. In the U.S., the song hit No. 1 on both TikTok’s Viral 50 and Top 50 charts and No.  67 on Spotify’s Global Top 100, where it has generated over 120 million Spotify streams, making it her most-streamed song to date. Before her passing in July, Francis said her newfound TikTok fame gave her a “new lease on life,” and she joined the platform herself at the age of 87.

TikTok has influenced music discovery since its inception as Musical.ly in 2014. But over the past decade, its impact on the music industry has become indisputable. TikTok’s algorithm has a unique ability to make the old feel new again, reshaping the way artists and the music business connect with fans.

“For a lot of younger users on our platform, this is the first time they’re discovering these songs,” Clive Rozario, the global music program manager at TikTok, told Mashable. “You have users rediscovering these songs, and you have those users who it’s the first time. And that’s amazing to see, particularly when older, iconic bands and artists reach a new fan base through TikTok.”

The renewed popularity of “Pretty Little Baby” — both on the charts and in the cultural conversation — is just one example of TikTok’s power to reanimate catalog music. Similar revivals have occurred with songs like “Rock That Body” by the Black Eyed Peas, “Let Down” by Radiohead, “Breakin’ Dishes” by Rihanna, “Headlock” by Imogen Heap, “Champagne Coast” by Blood Orange, “Forever Young” by Alphaville, “So Far So Fake” by Pierce the Veil, “Covet” by Basement, “Safe in Your Skin” by Title Fight, and “Youngest Daughter” by Superheaven. A February Luminate and TikTok Music Impact Report found that “84 percent of songs that entered the Billboard Global 200 in 2024 went viral on TikTok first.”

“Artists like Imogen Heap, Blood Orange, and Pierce the Veil have had some of their biggest moments off the back of these huge trends and virality driven by our community,” Rozario said. “Pierce the Veil got their highest Billboard Hot 100 entry off the back of [one of these trends].”

As record labels try to adapt, playlist curators hold new power. Songs recorded decades ago are rising on the charts; musicians are testing hooks in front of millions before ever uploading a single; and yes, that hardcore track from 2010 is now soundtracking TikTok fit checks.

When old songs become new again

When I was 14, I discovered nearly every new-to-me song through Grey’s Anatomy. It’s how I first heard “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol and “Portion for Foxes” by Rilo Kiley, and how Tegan and Sara broke through with “Where Does the Good Go.” Imagine that same influence — but with the instant feedback and reach of TikTok, where TV, culture, comedy, and everyday life are all soundtracked in real-time.

Consider “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush. Recorded in 1985, it originally peaked at No.  30 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was then featured in Stranger Things Season 4, nearly four decades later, and began trending on TikTok. Soon after, it reentered the charts, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 and surpassing one billion streams on Spotify in 2023.

“If something’s gonna go viral on TikTok, it’s usually connected to something,” Damian Keyes, a music industry educator with more than 100,000 followers on TikTok, told Mashable. “We saw [that with] Stranger Things and Kate Bush. If you get your music [in] a film or a Netflix series that hits No. 1, there’s a good chance that [it] will probably go viral.”

That virality, Keyes notes, also drives value in the catalog market. “What they’re doing is banking on more platforms like TikTok to help them make that money back.”

TikTok’s rediscovery effect has even reignited the careers of touring artists. When “Youngest Daughter” went viral two years ago, a post appeared on the Hardcore subreddit noting how “kids are making remixes of ‘Youngest Daughter’ on TikTok with a bunch of memes… but at the same time, a Lo-Fi rap remix of Superheaven kinda demolishes the whole vibe of the song.” The band had stopped touring in 2016, playing only a show a year, but the renewed attention to the 2013 track from Jar sparked new momentum. On Feb. 18, 2025, Superheaven announced a 16-stop North American tour — their first in nearly a decade.

Whether it was made 50 years ago or today, great music is going to cut through the noise of any algorithm and rise to the top.

It may seem counterintuitive that a youth-driven platform would spark a catalog revival, but the explanation is simple. As Ari Elkins, a playlist curator with 2.2 million followers on TikTok, told Mashable, “A good song is a good song.”

“Whether it was made 50 years ago or today, great music is going to cut through the noise of any algorithm and rise to the top.”

The DIY era of music discovery

If catalog artists are finding renewed life, emerging artists are using TikTok to build their careers from the ground up. 

Many newer artists use TikTok to cultivate a fan base before releasing their music, including Lil Nas X with “Old Town Road,” Erica Banks with “Buss It,” Tommy Richman with “Million Dollar Baby,” Dasha with “Austin,” and Gabriella Rose with “Doublewide.” Artists like Lola Young, Ravyn Lenae, CMAT, and Doechii made their mark on TikTok (and in Doechii’s case, also YouTube). According to the Luminate and TikTok Music Impact Report from February 2025, “84 percent of songs that entered the Billboard Global 200 in 2024 went viral on TikTok first.”

That same system of rediscovery now doubles as a tool for creation. While catalog success often depends on luck — a sync in a hit show, for instance — newer artists can engineer their growth. “If you want to build an audience, you can do it step by step, stage by stage. And that’s the magic of TikTok — you don’t have to rely on luck,” Keyes said.

Clive echoed this, describing TikTok as a testing ground for new material. “TikTok is a place where lots of artists preview their music and tease their music, and often you’ll see it go viral even before it comes out. It can be a never-released piece of music that goes viral…[and] as a result of the traction on TikTok, an official version gets released and becomes a global hit.” Think: “Anxiety” by Doechii.

Unlike the industry’s past gatekeepers, TikTok enables direct artist–fan relationships. “If real people genuinely care, not just discovered me because I did something crazy on a TikTok, that’s where you can house them. You can literally house an audience in a place where you can talk to them, communicate, sell to them, tell them where you’re performing, or push them to Spotify,” Keyes said.

However, success on TikTok requires both artistry and digital fluency — knowing not only who you are, but how to present it within seconds, multiple times a day, every day. “This is where art and science combine… The art is who you are, what you stand for… The science is how you wrap this up in a way that people will understand context,” Keyes said. “As an artist, your job is to do that in literally seconds.”

Even TikTok Live has become a discovery engine. “I’ve got a couple of artists that make $10,000 a month from going live on TikTok every night,” Keyes said.

The rise of both old and new artists on the platform isn’t a zero-sum game. “It’s happening simultaneously,” Elkins said. “We’re seeing a resurgence of past artists like No Doubt, while also the introduction of new artists like Somber and Alex Warren.”

Rozario says this dual rise of both old and new artists helps democratize music. And that very well might be true. The charts are significantly more diverse by both artist ethnicity and age today than they were in 2003, well before TikTok existed, according to an analysis of the charts published in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science.

But algorithmic listening has drawbacks. Filter bubbles can narrow musical taste and homogenize culture — and, some argue, can weaken the strength of our connection with music altogether.

Looking past the artists themselves and into the audience, it becomes a bit easier to understand why artists might want to adapt their music to fit the form. On TikTok, it’s essential to capture viewers’ attention within the first three seconds of a video — often, songs go viral because of a dance, a popular lyric, or something else not necessarily tied to musicality as a whole. That leads to discovery.

“Music is integral to the whole experience on TikTok,” Rozario said. “Users use music to soundtrack their creations, often very personal creations. It’s very creative. We are a creation-first platform.”

The future of music is algorithmic

TikTok’s ecosystem continues to evolve. Its “Add to Music App” feature has already been used to save more than three billion tracks to streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and SoundCloud, driving billions more streams. TikTok offers programs like “New Music,” “On Tour,” and TikTok for Artists, which provide real-time insights and data to help artists optimize their platform usage.

It doesn’t seem that TikTok is interested in keeping its users passively listening on its platform — it’s content to be the discovery tool and let another platform take the streams. “Fans discover music on TikTok and then consume elsewhere,” Clive said. 

But whether discovery happens on TikTok, Spotify, or Apple Music, it’s still driven by algorithms, and that reliance on technology is here to stay.

Elkins remains hopeful about that future. He said he’s “discovering music in so many different ways: on TikTok, curated playlists on Spotify, algorithmic playlists like [Spotify’s] Discover Weekly. Sometimes I find my favorite music just by talking to friends and sharing tracks.”

In the end, TikTok has redefined discovery, blurring the lines between old and new, fame and fandom, algorithm and artistry. And I, for one, could not be more excited for Olivia Dean.