TikTok Launches ‘Next Up’ Live Singing Competition

TikTok’s looking to expand its connection to the music industry by hosting its own American Idol-style singing competition within the app.

In partnership with iHeartRadio, TikTok’s announced a new “Next Up: Live Music” singing competition, which will enable wannabe singers to participate via in-app clips and live-streams.

As explained by TikTok:

“Kicking off July 28th and running through September, the program invites the TikTok community to discover and elevate emerging talent through a dynamic, multi-stage journey. Fans can follow rising artists in real time, engage directly with their performances, and help shape their path to the spotlight - culminating in an epic live finale at the iconic iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles on September 26th.”

How it works is, TikTok will invite participants to perform via live-stream performances, and will then judge the winners of each “based on a combination of engagement from the TikTok community and judges' scores.”

“The artists who receive the highest number of likes, views, comments, shares, and overall support during their live performances, along with strong feedback from the judges, will advance to the next round. Every view, interaction, and score counts, putting the power to elevate new talent into the hands of both fans and experts.”

TikTok will hold auditions, semi-finals, and the finale event in L.A., which will provide big exposure for emerging talent.

The competition is open to anyone in the U.S., though there are some fairly tough entry requirements.

First off, you need to have 50k followers on TikTok, with consistent engagement. So you can’t just buy up bots and build out a profile, you need to have a history of growing your audience in the app.

You also need to own the rights to at least one original song, and you can’t be signed by a major label.

So, yeah, that’s going to eliminate 90% of the field right off the bat.

But if you meet these requirements, it could be a powerful launching pad for your music career, with TikTok now playing a key role in music promotion and connection with fans.

And it’ll undoubtedly be popular.

The competition fits perfectly into TikTok’s content scope, and I can imagine a heap of TikTok users will tune-in, and get invested in the trajectories of their favorite competitors.

As such, it’s a good promotion, and it could also provide more opportunity for related brands to tap into the surrounding engagement to reach interested users.

You can learn more about TikTok’s “Next Up” event here.