12 TikTok Ideas for Musicians To Build Your Fanbase
TikTok is easily the most important social media platform for musicians right now, but have you ever struggled to come up with ideas for your TikTok?
Now that short-form vertical format videos are so prominently featured on every social media platform that matters, you probably feel pressure to make videos of your own.
The reality is that making TikToks without a clear goal or understanding of who you’re making them for can lead to a ton of frustration and wasted time.
So let’s explore a few of the ingredients behind successful TikToks.
How to make an engaging TikTok
Most successful TikToks contain a combination of a few things, but they start with a clear brand direction that resonates with a specific audience.
As you’ll see with the examples I’ll show later, your aesthetic should be different based on the music you make
If you’re a grungy shoegaze, nu-metal band you probably look different and have an audience that identifies with different things than if you make radio-friendly pop.
But no matter what genre you make, there are common threads between good TikToks.
Show your face
An obvious but fairly important reality is that content with faces get more engagement since a face helps to facilitate relationship-building with your audience.
Humans are naturally drawn to other faces and our attention spans last just that much longer when there’s something personal and familiar connecting with the audience one-on-one.
So put your face to your name and start taking some selfie videos.
Use a hook
TikTok hooks give the audience a reason to stop scrolling, pay attention and watch till the end of your video.
A hook can be a setup leading to a payoff, a joke, a misdirection, something eye-catching, an audience request, an interesting fact or a piece of information that sparks curiosity.
Think about what the hook should be as you come up with your TikTok ideas and you’ll find your videos reaching bigger audiences.
Split the screen with eye candy
No, you don’t have to put a subway surfer clip under your singing video, but how about a screenshot of your DAW’s interface if you’re sitting at your computer?
Any added visual with colors, a scrolling element or an animation placed below a talking head will help increase your watch time and keep your audience’s attention between you and what’s happening on screen.
Give us a live performance
Live performances are huge. Humans love watching other humans play music, especially when the musician is playing with feeling, emotion and skill.
So show us what you got.
Sing on camera, play your instrument, control your DAW, mix on turntables—give us a taste of your music skills and your story will be that much more believable.
Give us the real you
Of course, there’s the storytelling element that naturally comes with posting on TikTok—and I could tell you to make TikToks about “your story”.
But the reality is that your story is evolving and the best thing you can do is be authentic and genuine. Show us who you are and you’ll find an audience that connects with you.
Don’t try to force anything and just have fun with it! That’s what TikTok is supposed to be about anyway.
12 TikTok ideas for musicians
Alright, now that we’ve explored some of the mechanics behind what makes a great TikTok video, here are a few TikTok ideas with real examples.
1. Sing a part from your favorite song
🔥 TikTok Idea
This cute cover of Billie Eilish's "Birds of a Feather" couldn't be more heartfelt, made with love from @Heynothingatl's bedroom.
A classic idea and one of the original uses for TikTok—covering your favorite song in an earnest and heartfelt way can drum up engagement and show your followers who you’re listening to.
Tag the artist and let them know you covered them too. They might re-post, comment or get in touch with you to show their appreciation.
2. Use nostalgia triggers
🔥 TikTok Idea
I love Never Easy from my hometown of Montreal. They really captured a nostalgic vibe in this incredibly simple TikTok that went mega viral.
Nostalgia is such a common theme on TikTok and Reels, and music makes a ton of sense for creating those feelings because it’s so closely linked to memory triggers.
So if you make a song that harkens back to a bygone era, or you make music that’s re-inventing genres from the 90s and 2000s, consider leaning into those nostalgic vibes.
3. Find or make a weird instrument and produce a song with it
🔥 TikTok Idea
@its.queen.ife has built an entire TikTok career around sampling weird stuff into her funky hi-hop beats.
Performing your instrument is one thing, but playing something weird that no one’s ever seen before is even better. It can get a “WTF” reaction that drives curiosity and keeps audiences around for more.
You don’t necessarily have to learn a new instrument. Sampling an odd percussion item you found at the thrift store, or playing those cute baby xylophones totally count as ways to express an unusual musical TikTok idea.
You can even make a homemade weird instrument. Have you ever played with a steel mixing bowl with water in it? That sounds pretty darn weird!
4. Use reverse psychology and subvert expectations
🔥 TikTok Idea
While this not strictly a music TikTok, @sebbbuh shows us what can happen when people take reverse psychology seriously.
Don’t start a duet or stitch train… tell listeners NOT to duet or stitch your song.
There are many examples of funny reverse psychology TikToks out there. All you have to do is subvert expectation, misdirect your audience, or tempt them to disobey you.
5. Post till someone notices
🔥 TikTok Idea
These posts from Never Easy didn't get the same viral success as their other posts, but they consistently drive engagement.
The “day X of doing X until X happens” trend is huge on TikTok right now. That’s why there are a lot of bands trying this one.
While it has the potential to go viral, it’s also a great way to create daily content while showing who you are.
And if you have a single out on streaming platforms, these types of daily posts are a great way to increase engagement with that specific song.
6. Riff plus hook
🔥 TikTok Idea
@mynameisnotdrew gives a great example of a live riff performance paired with a hook that playfully asks the audience to send the reel to someone else.
If you find a cool riff, vocal part, rap verse, drum fill, synth patch or anything that sounds cool during a recording session, record yourself playing it and pair it with a hook.
The hook can be anything, it doesn’t even have to have anything to do with your music.
Just say something that asks your audience to do something, conveys a feeling or says something about your music.
7. Introduce yourself, your discography or your collabs
🔥 TikTok Idea
There's many bands and singer-songwriters out there doing TikToks like this one from @adamholmesmusicuk, but I think his is particularly touching in that it feels like he's putting everything on the line without seeming like he's pandering or begging for attention.
Tell the audience to stop scrolling and give your music a chance, then introduce yourself and give them a reason to check your music out.
Do it earnestly—put your real authentic self into it and someone will take a look.
8. Why is this broken?
🔥 TikTok Idea
@teomax knows why this mixer isn't making noise, do you?
Here’s a classic attention grabber—frustrate one part of the audience while making the other part feel like they’re smart for knowing what’s wrong.
If you work with a piece of gear that you know well, there are probably plenty of people out there who can relate to the issues and fixes associated with it.
TikToks that “play dumb” keep viewers who don’t know what’s wrong watching for the solution while encouraging know-it-alls in your fanbase to comment what the problem is.
9. Mash up your song with a bigger artist
🔥 TikTok Idea
This Chappel Roan x @kastramusic mashup works because the song so clearly fits the chord progression. Makes me wonder if Kastra did this intentionally!
Mashups have long been loved by audiences, even well before the days of TikTok. You may even remember the days of mashup CDs in the early 2000s if you’re my age.
Today mashups are super popular on TikTok, with many producers and artists creating their best content by mashing up their songs with popular artists.
It works because everyone knows the song but they want to hear a unique, genre-mashing take on it that’s surprising and new.
10. Come up with some creative set design
🔥 TikTok Idea
This simple camera shot with a colored light, the singer in the driver's seat and a nice view in the background is something almost anyone can do.
The setting of your videos is important and can even be the central theme of your video.
Whether you’re using a creative angle, some interesting lighting or an odd setting for your video—getting creative where, how and when you shoot your TikToks can add a new level of creativity, interest and excitement.
11. A day in my life
🔥 TikTok Idea
This average day in the life vlog of Toronto musician @johnwritessongs lets us into a down-to-earth singer-songwriter's daily routine.
Interesting day ahead? Why not make a vlog-style TikTok out of it.
Even if the day you’re documenting isn’t the biggest day ever, capture a few snippets of it and show your audience a real, authentic slice of your life.
This kind of daily content is great for creating the consistent engagement social media platforms love, and it’s your opportunity to hype upcoming events like releases, shows and tours.
12. Who’s the drummer?
🔥TikTok Idea
This TikTok from indie rock band Comic Sans is easily one of the their best performers!
Or the guitarist, or the keyboardist?
If you haven’t seen this trend that bands are following, maybe give it a try.
The hook is easy, just ask the audience to comment who they think is the official drummer of your band and then give a clip of everyone doing their best drum part.
Follow that TikTok up with an introduction of who actually plays what and you have a winner!
Making TikToks should be like making music
You should make them because it’s fun.
Don’t think too hard about it, just embrace your creative side, lean into a fun new trend and make something that you enjoy working on.
Just like the fun you had making the music that got you here in the first place!
Alex Lavoie is a drummer, music producer, songwriter and marketing professional living in Montreal, Quebec. He works as a staff writer at LANDR by day and writes indie post-punk tunes in his band UTILS while moonlighting as drummer for folk-rock outfit The Painters. Connect with Alex Lavoie on LANDR Network!
@Alex LavoieGear guides, tips, tutorials, inspiration and more—delivered weekly.
Keep up with the LANDR Blog.
