How do songs go viral on TikTok? Creators are offered hundreds of dollars for lip-sync videos to produce a viral hit

Whether you like it or not, TikTok is now an important tool for artists to get a hit or even a record deal.

We’ve seen artists have huge hits with songs that go viral on TikTok. Dasha’s “Austin” has over 700,000 posts, and the song taking off on the social media app catapulted him to number 19 on the all-genre list. Billboard Hot 100 chart and Dasha’s first ever charting single. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has over 1 million videos on TikTok and recently became the first song by a Black male artist to reach No. 1 on both the Hot 100 chart and the Hot Country Songs chart simultaneously.

From “Dicked Down In Dallas” to “Fancy Like,” we’ve seen time and time again that TikTok can turn a catchy song into a real hit.

But do people just find a song they like and post it, or is there more to it?

Well, it may surprise you that these “viral” songs are very often the result of coordinated campaigns by artists, PR agencies or the labels behind them.

Take Shaboozey’s smash hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Is it catchy? Absolutely. But was its success purely organic or was there someone behind the scenes who wanted to make it a viral hit?

If you look at the videos posted on TikTok, you will notice that many of them have the same or a very similar caption:

@markhamptonmusic I’m here for it #shaboozey #fyp ♬ A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey

@tylernolan Who’s ready for summer??😮‍💨🎶 #shaboozey ♬ A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey

@sweetlifeoflauren_ Bring on the summer ☀️ #fyp #foryoupage #shaboozey #summersong #golfday #trending #inmyelement ♬ A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey

@lifewithkristie Summer anthem✨ Who’s ready for summer?☀️🤘🏼😎 #shaboozey #fyp #summervibes ♬ A bar song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey

@keepingitkalee Bring on the sunny days ☀️☀️☀️ #summer #happy #music #vibing #virgo #virgoenergy #summer2024 #singing #newmusic #shaboozey #recognizable #fyp ♬ A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey

@kayla_mae90 Summer mood. 🙌🏼 #fyp #vibes #summertime #catchyourown #danceitout #abarsong #shaboozey #livelife ♬ A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey

@aprilrose0131 This song sounds like summer ☀️ #summer #2024 #shaboozey #tipsy ♬ A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey

What a coincidence…

And Dasha’s song “Austin” is very similar; here too, many of the subtitles are about how much fun line dancing is.

Now, could these creators all have simply had the same thought? Sure. But another explanation is that they were all paid and told what subtitles to use on the video in order to earn the commission on the video.

Currently, TikTok creators who meet the requirements (i.e. have monetized their accounts), for example, can earn up to $800 for videos promoting Dasha’s next single, “Didn’t I.” To get paid for the video, the organizer lists the specific requirements:

“Lip sync + on-screen text about how Dasha released new music.”

They also provide examples and suggested captions, such as:

“I’m OBSESSED with the new Dasha song”

“I’m still obsessed with Austin and Dasha just dropped another banger!!”

To earn the full $800, a video must have 800,000 views, but you can still get paid a portion of that as long as the video has 5,000 views.

But I’m not singling out Dasha, because she’s far from the only artist to put a budget behind a viral hit. In fact, Shaboozey also had another song on TikTok that offered creators the opportunity to make some money from the post.

Those who qualify can also earn $800 for videos featuring Shaboozey’s “Last of My Kind,” which also features Paul Cauthen. (Unfortunately, the campaign has already ended, so if you were hoping to make money from it, you’ll have to find another song.)

Of course, I’m not necessarily saying it’s BAD when artists do this. They’re using the tools at their disposal to get their music out there, and it’s paying off.

At the same time, you don’t know which songs are real viral hits and which are being pushed behind the scenes by big money investors. The videos are not marked as “paid” advertising and are therefore passed off as organic content, when in reality they are anything but.

Regardless, this is just one way artists, PR teams and labels can take advantage of the rapidly changing social media landscape and produce a viral hit.