While the TikTok ban on Jan. 19 stayed in effect for less than 24 hours after Trump put a reprieve in place, the popular entertainment app is still in danger of being censored by the United States Supreme Court, and with it, potentially the voices of many up-and-coming musicians.
Over the course of the last eight years, TikTok has become one of the world’s most popular social media apps, with its parent company ByteDance estimated to have a valuation of $100 billion to $200 billion. While the app started off as a combination of the Chinese app “Douyin” and the popular lip-synching platform “Musical.ly,” by 2018, TikTok had become the most downloaded app in the United States and has only grown its global popularity since.
While the concept of uploading short-form videos poses no threat to the Western world, it is TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese-based corporation ByteDance, that has been a cause for concern for some American politicians.
“TikTok’s collection of reams of sensitive data about 170 million Americans and their contacts makes it a powerful tool for espionage,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a government brief, “and TikTok’s role as a key channel of communication makes it a potent weapon for covert influence operations.”
Following a series of legal proceedings, a law passed by the United States Congress and upheld by the United States Supreme Court stated that unless ByteDance sold TikTok in a process known as “qualified divestiture,” the app would be removed from the app store and banned for all users in the United States on Jan. 19. While the app was never sold and the ban came into effect on the night of Jan. 18, American TikTok users were back to using the app as usual before dinnertime the next day.
Still, unless ByteDance sells the company, or works out some kind of back-door deal with President Donald Trump, TikTok’s accessibility to the United States is still in peril.
And if TikTok goes down, the livelihoods of many up-and-coming American musicians may potentially disappear with it.
During its near-decade on the market, TikTok has created hundreds of overnight celebrities due to its unique style of short content consumption. One night, a relatively unknown creator could post a video of themselves on the app doing just about anything and the next morning, that video could have blown up, the TikTok algorithm showing the video to millions of people around the globe. The format of the short, easily digestible video allows viewers to connect with the creator, getting a taste of what they have to offer without being bogged down by long-winded videos that take forever to get to the point.
Although this feature has now become more common across platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, when TikTok first began to gain traction, it was a fairly novel concept. While some people have complained that it promotes mindless scrolling and short attention spans, TikTok’s quick, snappy and informative videos have allowed various people of varying backgrounds to gain exposure on the global stage, changing their lives forever.
This has been the case for many young musicians who are now living a dream they once thought was impossible.
Take Peter McPoland, a 24-year-old American musician who started his journey on TikTok in 2020 making videos from his attic bedroom in his parents’ home in Texas.
Prior to his internet success, McPoland had released a few songs, none of which had found much traction. But when he posted a comedic video of himself playing the accordion and singing “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion, he quickly went from getting a few thousand views to having a viral video with over 300 thousand likes. From there, McPoland was able to release singles such as “Romeo and Juliet,” “Elouise” and “Prom Queen” with great success.
Since his quick ascension to fame in 2020, McPoland has been signed by Columbia Records, released a highly successful record titled Piggy and opened for Twenty One Pilots on The Icy Tour and Imagine Dragons on the Loom World Tour.
While McPoland had made YouTube videos showcasing his music prior to blowing up on TikTok, he clearly owes much of his success to the exposure the app gave him in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other musicians such as Gigi Perez also owe their stardom to the popular entertainment app. While Perez had been making videos of her music on TikTok for years before a clip of her hit track “Sailor Song” went viral online, it was that overnight success that allowed her to sign a deal with Island Records.
McPoland and Perez are only two examples of the hundreds of people who have found success as musicians on TikTok. Their livelihood and continued success rely on their ability to grow their following through the app and without it, others like them will be unable to find the same widespread exposure they did.
While the ban currently only affects the United States, the expulsion of their 330-million-person population from using the app will likely do damage to the success of other up-and-coming musicians around the world as well. This is not only due to what would be a marked lack of eyes on the videos but also because many of the big music labels these artists find success through are based in the U.S.
It does just remain true that one of the best ways for a young musician to build a following in 2025 is through TikTok. It’s more than an app that people dance on, and a ban will have consequences on the music scene that those who just see it as a silly low-effort dancing app might not realize.