tech
Even before a disruption in January caused by a looming U.S. ban, TikTok’s domination of video-based social media usage had started to wane. The service’s share of U.S. consumers’ time spent using social media apps fell to 29% in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 34% in the prior-year period, according to MusicWatch. In that same time span, YouTube Shorts’ share increased from 24% to 26% and Facebook Reels improved from 16% to 18%, while the “other” category rose one percentage point to 6%, Instagram Reels was flat at 18% and Triller remained at 3%.
That coincided with an overall downward trend in social media use. The average time spent using social media apps per week dropped from 7.9 hours in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 6.5 hours in the fourth quarter of 2024, says MusicWatch principal Russ Crupnick. That’s not an unexpected trend as Americans move further past pandemic-era behaviors, but Crupnick also notes that average times will fall as older, more casual users adopt social media platforms.
Trending on Billboard
Still, that overall decrease doesn’t account for TikTok’s declining share of consumers’ attention. A few years ago, the app seemed like an unstoppable freight train as its influence spread across tech and commerce. It also became a powerful promotional vehicle for artists, many of whom launched their careers by going viral on the platform. Once TikTok proved there was an insatiable demand for short-form video, Instagram and YouTube launched copycat products with Reels and Shorts, respectively. Its impact even spread to Amazon, which launched a TikTok-styled feed for product discovery called Inspire in 2022 (Amazon announced it was shutting down the feature earlier this week). Music streaming services also followed suit: At Spotify, artists can now post short video messages to their fans.
Exactly why TikTok lost share in 2024 isn’t clear. “It’s hard to say,” says Crupnick. “Is this a function of all the political nonsense going on around the app? Is it a function of YouTube and some of the competitors catching up a little bit? Is it a little bit of exhaustion with music on social video? Or is it all three?”
Whatever the case, this reshuffling of the landscape has led artists to flock to other platforms and eroded TikTok’s dominance as a promotional vehicle. Experts who spoke with Billboard about TikTok’s decline described a changing social media landscape in which the platform remains a powerful marketing tool but has lost some of its allure and potency. For a variety of reasons, consumers are spending more time at TikTok’s competitors, and artists are thus seeing more opportunity at platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.
One factor in TikTok’s decline in market share is YouTube and Meta successfully leveraging the scale and scope of their respective platforms to become serious contenders in short-form video. YouTube, in particular, has succeeded in integrating Shorts into a platform that used to be occupied only by long-form videos. “I think YouTube has done a good job of building an ecosystem,” says J.D. Tuminski, founder of Casadei Collective Marketing Agency. “They do a lot of education for artists and labels about building the Shorts ecosystem that feeds into the bigger picture of music video content and lifestyle content.”
Jenna Rosenberg, head of operations and marketing at Gorilla Management, agrees that YouTube has benefitted by combining short-form and long-form videos. “I think when people are watching the longer videos [on YouTube] they can easily get sucked into the short-form part of that platform as well, and vice versa. Whereas TikTok, it’s literally just the vertical short-form content.”
At the same time, YouTube and Instagram are increasingly seen as friendly to creators. “Anecdotally, YouTube and Meta pay better than TikTok,” says Tuminski. “Also, the TikTok creator fund is always shifting. There are different thresholds that you have to meet to be able to earn on there, and they’re not always clear.”
TikTok, on the other hand, is seen as prioritizing some of its e-commerce initiatives. TikTok Shop, for example, allows creators to stream live videos and sell goods and merchandise. In January, TikTok Shop sales were up 153% year-over-year, far exceeding the growth rates of Chinese e-commerce platforms Shein and Temu, according to Bloomberg. While live shopping may be a sensible practice for a TikTok influencer, musicians tend to shy away from that kind of activity — and as a result, they aren’t flocking to TikTok Shop. “An artist isn’t necessarily going to go on TikTok Live and say, “Hey, come and buy my vinyl,’” says Rosenberg. “It’s just very uncomfortable for them.”
The standoff between Universal Music Group (UMG) and TikTok may also have played a part in shifting sentiment around the app in the music community. In February 2024, UMG began pulling its content from TikTok over a disagreement about compensation, among other factors. For many artists and labels, that dust-up was “a warning sign” that TikTok’s dominance in social media wasn’t secure, says Dan Roy Carter, managing director of digital consultancy Carter Projects. “Deals fell apart, carefully designed viral campaigns became eye-watering wastes of budget, and acts who had built their presence reliant on TikTok were left very much bent out of shape.”
“I think a lot of folks were looking for alternatives, even before all the political things that are going on,” says Tuminski. Artists want to work with brands they trust, he adds, and they will go where their fans are. If one service isn’t providing what they want, “they’ll go to somewhere that makes a little bit more sense to them.”
Things have worsened for TikTok in 2025 due to a pending shutdown in the U.S., although President Donald Trump provided a stay of execution when he entered office. The looming ban caused traffic to decline, however, and pushed people to download alternatives such as RedNote. As of this week, TikTok has lost one-tenth of its U.S. users since the first week of January, according to Similarweb data published by The Information.
Still, TikTok remains a powerful and influential force in music and entertainment. By 2024, a third of U.S. adults used TikTok, while almost six in 10 teens (57%) say they use the platform daily and 16% say they’re on it “almost constantly,” according to Pew Research. People use TikTok mostly for pop culture and entertainment but also viral music and dances, humor and comedy, personal stories, fashion advice, product recommendations, politics and, for 5% of U.S. adults, news.
“There is still huge value in TikTok as a platform for music discovery and promotion, and perhaps their ability to tap into merch, ticketing, and conversion to paid streaming will usher a second coming,” says Carter. “But its days of being the only horse are seemingly coming to an end.”
Belting out your favorite song in your car with the windows down is time-honored catharsis, a solitary moment that helps release tension and express emotion. Medical studies have shown that singing has both physical and psychological health benefits. Now, a new virtual reality app encourages users to experience those benefits with a headset strapped on, immersed in a gorgeous setting while crooning their favorite Chappell Roan song or rapping their Kendrick Lamar track of choice.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Realize Music: Sing, which launched on Thursday (Feb. 20) exclusively on the Meta Quest in North America, is designed to promote relaxation through singing smash hits and unlocking achievements the more tunes they warble. The experience, from wellness-based entertainment venture Realize Music Inc., exists at the midsection between popular VR fitness apps like Beat Saber and Supernatural, and an uninhibited night at the karaoke bar with friends.
“This is very different than focusing on fitness, but similar in the way that this is something that you do by yourself, for yourself,” Mark Roemer, Realize Music co-founder and CEO, tells Billboard. “It’s not performative — this isn’t something that you’re doing to show off your skills in front of your friends at a party. It’s more singing just for you, and getting yourself into the zone with the music that you love.”
Trending on Billboard
Roemer says that Realize Music: Sing, the company’s first title, began its development process during the pandemic, as the music and wellness industry veteran was joined by longtime video game producer and publisher Mike Wilson at the new company. “Everyone was feeling the same levels of anxiety and stress and isolation,” Roemer says. “We knew that we had something that could help get people into flow state through pattern breathing and vagus nerve stimulation. If we were to do it through some sort of meditation app, it would be a lot less likely to reach the masses than if we did something incorporating popular music, which is what we’ve done.”
To do so, Realize Music: Sing launches with blanket licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, which Roemer says took about a year to secure. When users select a song to sing, they are “transported into gorgeous, otherworldly landscapes,” says Roemer, and the lyrics are projected into the sky. As they sing their favorite Lady Gaga, Linkin Park or Tom Petty song, their voice emits stars, and their tone affects how the spherical landscape appears, with points earned less on performance than on movement and timing.
“We all have that music that changes our state,” Roemer notes. “And we wanted to have the widest variety of music in this app so that people could choose that which is appropriate for them in the moment, because that also changes.”
Realize Music: Sing launches at an introductory subscription price of $9.99 per month, or $99.99 for an annual subscription. While future releases are in development for Apple, Samsung and Sony PSVR2, Roemer also points out that new music will be added to the app on a weekly basis, as well as new, customized artist packs, similar to those in fitness VR apps.
“We’ve got stuff that ranges generations,” says Roemer. “In a household, maybe a 12-year-old owns the headset — but there’s something in there for the parents, there’s something in there for the older siblings. There’s something in there for literally everybody.”
Roemer also notes that Realize Music: Sing was built with Unreal Engine, the same technology used to power the visuals of the Sphere in Las Vegas — and that the VR app could eventually extend in live events as well. “I envision ticketed group singalongs in that venue,” he says. “I am imagining genre-specific singalong parties, with thousands of others singing their hearts out! I could easily see ’80s, Disney, pop and oldies being wildly popular regular events — with the graphics providing a shared experience, and the seats providing a haptic element.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Xbox / Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass continues to add the hottest titles to its library to keep you picking up your Xbox controller.
Xbox Game Pass subscribers, listen up: some big day one releases and fan favorites are heading to the service to help it continue being the best value in gaming.
Available Right Now!
Journey to the Living Lands right now in one of the most anticipated games of the year, Avowed, from Obsidian Entertainment.
Per Xbox:
Welcome to the Living Lands, a mysterious island filled with adventure and danger. Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.
Coming Soon
Here are some titles you can look forward to playing on Xbox Game Pass, per Xbox.
EA Sports F1 24 (Cloud, Console, and PC) EA Play – February 20 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Join the grid and chase podium glory with unlimited access to EA Sports F1 24, coming soon to The Play List. Members can master every turn and feel at one with the car with Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta), PC Game Pass, or Game Pass Ultimate via EA Play. Plus, score in-game rewards including 5,000 XP monthly.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – February 20 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is an isometric RPG by Owlcat Games, set in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium. As a powerful Rogue Trader, you command a starship, assemble a crew, and explore the Imperium, making fateful decisions in tactical, turn-based combat.
Watch Dogs: Legion (Cloud, Console, and PC) – February 25 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Explore a massive urban open world featuring London’s many iconic landmarks and fun side activities where you can recruit (and play as) anyone. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set for unique situations. Team up with your friends to complete new four-player co-op missions and PvP matches online.
A Classic Returns
Ryse: Son of Rome Available with Cloud Gaming Game Pass Ultimate
Jump back in this immersive action-adventure story of struggle, brutality, and heroism with Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta). Amidst the chaos of the late Roman Empire, become soldier Marius Titus and embark on a perilous campaign to avenge the death of your family and defend the honor of Rome. In Gladiator Mode, step into the Colosseum and fight for the glory, spectacle, and entertainment of the crowds.
Games Leaving Xbox Game Pass February 28
With the arrival of new titles, some games are leaving, but don’t fret; you can use your Xbox Game Pass 20% discount to purchase these games and ensure they stay in your library.
F1 22 (Console and PC) EA Play
Gris (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Maneater (Cloud, Console, and PC)
PAW Patrol World (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Space Engineers (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Wo Long Fallen Dynasty (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Yakuza 3 Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Yakuza 4 Remastered (Cloud, Console, and PC
DLC & Game Updates
Sea of Thieves: Season 15 – Starting February 20
Sea of Thieves is more exciting than ever as new life abounds across the waves. Set forth on new Voyages for The Hunter’s Call, grapple with wild boars and deadly sea monsters, master using hunting spears and more, with new features to enjoy each month.
Ark Survival Ascended: Astraeos DLC – Available Now
Game Pass members save 10%! Embark on your next epic odyssey within the world of Ark with Astraeos! Explore and immerse yourself in an elysian land of colossal proportions, steeped in Greek mythology. At over 260km², this massive new map is overflowing with stunning scenery, ancient ruins, and sacred temples. Face off against powerful new bosses, alpha dino variants with enhanced loot, and a fearsome miniboss lurking in mysterious caves.
Forza Motorsport: Update 17 – Available Now
Update 17 celebrates cars that are fun, compact, and performant. Race four new-to-Motorsport cars: 2023 Toyota Camry TRD, 2022 Hyundai i20N, 2022 Toyota GR86, and 2021 Hyundai #98 Elantra TCR. Get the 2021 Toyota Yaris GR and 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5N in the Challenge Hub.
Age of Mythology: Retold – Immortal Pillars Expansion – March 4
Game Pass members can save 10% on their pre-order of Immortal Pillars, the highly anticipated first expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold. Harness the power of ancient Chinese mythology and discover a world where gods, monsters, and legends collide in an epic new chapter of mythical strategy.
Game Pass Ultimate Perks
Madden NFL 25: EA Play Supercharge Pack – Available Now
Madden NFL 25 is now on The Play List. Get your Ultimate Team ready for the gridiron with the Supercharge Pack.
Minecraft: 1 Month Marketplace Pass – Available Now
Get access to the Marketplace Pass for 1 month! Discover 150+ pieces of content including worlds, skin packs, add-ons and more refreshed monthly. This Perk requires a payment instrument to redeem. Terms apply.
Monster Hunter Now: MH Now Bundle – Available Now
Claim 2 Ultra Hunting Tickets, 2 Paintballs, 2 Potions, a Wander Orb, and a Tigrex crafting material for weapons and armor. This Perk content requires Monster Hunter Now (mobile) to use. Valid only for iOS and Android versions of the game.
MultiVersus: MVP Pack 5 – Available Now
The MultiVersus MVP Pack offers in-game content to further customize and boost your play for Game Pass Ultimate members. MVP Pack 5 includes a Rare Banner – Bun Power and a Legendary Taunt – Treat Break.
Naruto 4-Movie Collection: Free movies – Available Now (US Only)
Claim four Anime classic movies including Naruto Shippuden The Movie: Blood Prison, Naruto Road to Ninja, Naruto The Last, and Boruto: The Naruto Movie. More Naruto titles are on sale during Anime month. Available in the US only.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Bryan Bedder / Getty / DJ Khaled
Out of all the rumors surrounding Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated video game GTA 6, gamers hope this one in particular is pure C A P.
Spotted on Gamespot, word on the video game streets is that you will reportedly be hearing DJ Khaled screaming “WE THE BEST” and dishing out major keys in GTA 6 because the music producer will host his own radio station in the game.
A prominent Call of Duty insider named The Ghost of Hope on X, formerly Twitter, shared some inside information on the GTA 6 and claims the “Wild Thoughts’ crafter will host an in-game station.
“DJ Khaled will feature in Grand Theft Auto 6 to host his very own music station that will also play his songs,” Hope wrote in a post. “There is potential for other real-life artists to be included as well on their own radio stations.”
This concept isn’t new to the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise. Music artists and their music have been featured on the game’s radio stations, which play a significant role in the gameplay. The game will be heading to Leonida, GTA’s hilarious take on the state of Florida—and its Miami-inspired Vice City.
Gamers Are Not Excited About DJ Khaled Being In GTA 6
Still, that doesn’t mean people have to be hyped about this news because, based on the reactions, gamers are not jumping for joy at the idea of DJ Khaled’s alleged involvement in GTA 6.
“Thanks to rockstar’s kindness they gave dj khaled his own radio channel, so his music doesn’t show up on the good stations,” one post on X read.
Another post stated, “No one asked for this.”
It’s clear DJ Khaled’s presence, voice, and likeness are not wanted in GTA 6, and we totally understand. If this news is true, we know which station will be the least popular of them all.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Lol, bruh
3. Howling
4. Now why would you say a thing like this?
5. Pretty much
6. HA HA HA
10. Nah chill
12. Nah chill
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: NetEase / Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals is one of the most popular games out at the moment, so it’s shocking to hear that its development team is experiencing layoffs.
Spotted on Insider Gaming, multiple social media reports state that NetEase has laid off Marvel Rivals’ entire development team. Marvel Rivals’ game director Thaddeus Sasser revealed the sad and surprising news in a post on LinkedIn he shared on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is such a weird industry…” Sasser wrote. “My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games…and were just laid off!”
According to Sasser, NetEase laid off the Seattle-based team that was tasked with “coming up with new level design mechanics, gameplay mechanics, and so on.”
Level designer Garry McGee, one of the affected developers, and level designer Jack Burrows, who confirmed the news via his post on LinkedIn, were among those who lost their jobs.
Social Media Is Stunned
According to Circana data from industry analyst Mat Piscatella, Marvel Rivals is one of the top five games with the most active users across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Steam, so it’s not surprising that social media is stunned by the news.
“Marvel Rivals is the hottest game out rn, just revealed 2 banger characters, and people still got laid off. The industry is cooked,” one user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote.
Journalist Alyssa Mercante wrote, “Even successful game devs are not safe, because THE PROBLEMS ARE AT THE TOP.”
SpawnOnMe’s Kahlief Adams wrote on X, “Rivals a super popular and profitable game letting go their Game Director the same day as they debut new content seems like Bizzaro land and business as usual at the same time. Success is also in the upside down…”
As Adams mentioned, this tragic news came as Marvel Rivals announced that The Thing and Human Torch from The Fantastic 4 will be in the game this Friday. Blade, the vampire hunter, has also been teased.
Bruh, the video game industry is on one right now. You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
5. When all else fails blame Donald Trump
MashApp, a music remixing app featuring hit songs from Doja Cat, Ed Sheeran, Britney Spears and more, launched in the Apple app store Tuesday (Feb. 18). At launch, the AI-powered app has already worked out licenses for select tracks from Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group’s (WMG’s) publishing and recorded music catalogs, Sony Music’s recorded music catalog, and Kobalt’s publishing catalog.
The app, founded by former Spotify executive Ian Henderson, features a TikTok-like vertical feed for users to share the remixes they make with the app. Among the tools it offers to users, MashApp boasts the ability to combine and mix multiple songs into each other and to speed up, slow down or separate out a song into its individual stems (the individual instrument tracks in a master recording).
Trending on Billboard
News of MashApp’s launch arrives just days after Bloomberg reported that Spotify is planning to launch a superfan streaming tier that includes extra features, like high-fidelity audio and in-app remixing tools.
MashApp, however, is the latest standalone app to use cutting edge technology, like AI, to allow users to morph and manipulate their favorite songs. Last year, Hook, another AI remix app, announced its licensing deal with Downtown. Other companies, like Lifescore, Reactional Music and Minibeats, have also played with the idea of allowing users more control over the music they listen to in recent years. With these tools, fans can turn static recordings into dynamic works that evolve over time based on a listener’s situation, whether that’s having the music respond to actions in a video game in real time or while driving a car. Even Ye (formerly Kanye West) played with this concept during the rollout of his album Donda 2, which was only available via a hardware device, called a Stem Player, that let listeners control the mix of the album.
MashApp is available for free or via a paid subscription for ad-free listening and additional features. Though mashups and remixes of hit songs are popular soundtracks for short-form content on TikTok and Instagram Reels, MashApp creations must be enjoyed within the app and are only available for personal use.
“MashApp’s mission is to bring the joy of playing with music creation to non-musicians, to let people play with their favorite music, as they have long done through DJing, mix tapes, mashups, and karaoke,” explained MashApp CEO/founder Henderson in a statement. “We want this new creative play to be a great experience for fans, but also for artists. This requires close partnerships with record labels and music publishers, and we’re excited that our partners have embraced our vision.”
Mark Piibe, executive vp of global business development & digital strategy at Sony Music, added: “We are pleased to be working with MashApp to help fans go deeper in how they engage with their favorite music through a new personalization and creation experience that appropriately values the work of our artists. This partnership furthers Sony Music’s ongoing commitment to supporting innovation in the marketplace by collaborating with developers of quality products that see opportunity in solutions that respect the rights of professional creators.”
“UMG always seeks to support innovation in the digital music ecosystem. MashApp introduces another evolution of the streaming experience for users by combining the creativity of DJ apps, with the accessibility that streaming offers,” said Nadir Contractor, senior vp of digital strategy & business development at UMG. “Within MashApp, users can unlock their own creative expression to curate, play and enjoy in real-time musical mashups from their favorite artists and songs, while respecting and supporting artist rights.”
“Our commitment to championing the rights of our artists and songwriters is at the core of everything we do,” said John Rees, senior vp of strategy & business development at WMG. “This partnership with MashApp builds on this mission–delivering a licensed, innovative platform that not only offers fans an exciting way to engage with music but also safeguards the work of the artists and songwriters who make it all possible.”
Lastly, Bob Bruderman, chief digital officer at Kobalt Music, added, “Kobalt has been a strong supporter of new companies that allow fans to express their creativity and engage with music they love. It was immediately clear that MashApp had a unique vision that opened a new experience for music fans on a well-executed platform, simultaneously respecting copyright. We look forward to a long partnership with MashApp.”
Ole Obermann, the long-serving global head of music business development, is leaving the company. Tracy Gardner will step into the role after his departure at the end of March.
“I am proud to have played a role in bringing so many people the joy of music while at TikTok,” Obermann wrote in a note to staff on Tuesday (Feb. 18), according to Music Business Worldwide. “We have an amazing team,” he continued, “and leadership and music will continue to thrive and evolve on TikTok.”
A representative for TikTok declined to comment.
Trending on Billboard
Obermann started at TikTok in 2019. Before that, he spent three years at Warner Music Group as chief digital officer/evp, strategy and business development, and a decade at Sony Music, where he worked on licensing renewals with Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, as well as deals with Facebook and many other digital services. Gardner also worked at WMG prior to joining TikTok.
During Obermann’s time at TikTok, the platform grew rapidly and became a major conduit for music discovery, changing the ways that artists made and marketed songs, and the ways that labels signed and promoted artists.
As TikTok grew, it also evolved from its roots as a dance-focused app for younger users. “Even though it’s been a bunch of years since we morphed from Musical.ly to TikTok, there is still, in some communities, this misconception that the artist needs to get out there and do a dance to their song, and then it’s going to go viral,” Obermann said last year.
For the music business, Obermann often served as the TikTok’s public face. TikTok’s relationship with the industry was tense for much of 2024: There was a monthslong standoff with Universal Music Group before the two parties came to a licensing agreement.
“There was obviously a value conversation: What are the payments that are happening, and also how much marketing and promotion can we provide to help with the discovery of new music or new artists that are priorities for them?” Obermann explained last year. “So that was one thing that we were wrestling over, and we ultimately got there.”
NFTs are back — but don’t worry about holding onto your wallet. At least in the music business, the NFT (non-fungible token) is quietly starting a second, more practical life far removed from the deafening hype that surrounded the digital assets just a few years ago.
At the beginning of the decade, some artists made millions selling NFTs while celebrities were helping legitimize them, with stars like Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Madonna and Paris Hilton all buying NFTs from the then-hot Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. Then, predictably, the NFT bubble burst in fantastic fashion. In less than a year, Bieber’s Bored Ape, which he purchased for $1.3 million, was worth around $69,000.
NFTs were often a bad investment, but the underlying technology still has many believers. Last week, Sony quietly launched a music NFT collection on its Soneium blockchain platform. The fact that Sony — the larger company, not Sony Music Entertainment — is investing in Web3 technology may come as a surprise, but its efforts go back more than a year. Sony Network Communications, later renamed to Sony Block Solutions Lab, revealed in September 2023 that it had created a joint venture with Startale Labs to develop “a blockchain that can become the backbone of global web3 infrastructure” and create “killer web3 use cases to drive the adoption of web3.” Eleven months later, Sony announced the development of the Soneium blockchain that will form the infrastructure for those so-called “killer use cases,” with the goal of expanding Web3 technology and services to a broader audience and “build[ing] a world where web3 services permeate people’s daily lives.” The launch of Soneium was announced on Jan. 14.
Trending on Billboard
One of the applications on Soneium is a new fan marketing platform through which companies can issue NFTs. So far, two of Sony’s music divisions, Sony Music Entertainment France and Sony Music Publishing (Japan), issued NFTs as “demonstration experiment[s]” for its entertainment companies to “provide new value to creators and fans through web3 services.” In France, Sony celebrated the second anniversary of a Web3 community called Sunny B. 1991 by distributing limited-edition NFTs to the community. In Japan, Sony will distribute limited-edition NFTs to coincide with a live event for the girl group SANDAL TELEPHONE.
Sony’s blockchain push comes at a time when music companies are increasingly targeting superfans through digital platforms and merchandise offers. “NFTs are uniquely suited for this because they are programmable digital assets that can evolve over time,” says Cherie Hu of Water & Music, a music industry research and consulting practice. NFTs and their “smart contracts” — self-executing code on the blockchain — allow artists to create membership experiences that can evolve over time. And because NFTs use decentralized technology, they aren’t reliant on any one platform or company — a notable advantage when a country can outright ban a social media platform. “This is quite different from traditional fan clubs, where fan data is otherwise fragmented and hard to act upon from the artist’s perspective,” says Hu.
Sony’s slow launch of its blockchain ambitions will ultimately be helpful to other companies in the music space, says David Greenstein, CEO of two blockchain-related startups, Sound and Vault. “Any legacy company that’s trying to innovate, I have a lot of respect for because I think the industry needs more innovation,” he says. Three years ago, releasing high-priced yet useless NFTs was seen as innovative. In 2025, innovation means using blockchain technology, cryptocurrency and NFTs to create consumer-friendly products that bring artists and fans together.
A fresh approach to NFTs makes sense now that the market is tanking. NFT trading volume fell 19% in 2024, according to DappRadar, making it the worst year for NFTs since 2020 and far below their height in 2022, when they boasted $57.2 billion in trading volume. Last year’s leading NFT collection was Pudgy Penguins, which goes far beyond Web3 by selling plushy toys in brick-and-mortar retailers and sponsoring the uniforms of Spanish soccer club CD Castellón. Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs still generate a relatively large amount of sales activity, but prices in the last 30 days were down about 91% from their highs in 2022.
As enthusiasm for NFTs waned, some worthwhile experiments went belly up. Universal Music Group’s foray into NFTs was Kingship, a virtual band comprised of three Bored Ape characters and a rare Mutant Ape. The 5,000 NFTs, which would unlock music and other perks for owners, quickly sold out in July 2022. The group landed a sponsorship with M&Ms in 2022 and a Kingship game launched on Roblox in 2023. But by all appearances the project is now dead, and Kingship NFTs that sold for 0.23 ETH three years ago (approximately $300 at the time) are trading for less than 0.002 ETH ($5) today.
“There’s going to be very fruitful, better things that come out of [blockchain technology] that are non-speculative, just because the technology is awesome,” says Greenstein. His latest company, Vault, allows artists to build relationships with fans and creates a blockchain-based digital wallet for each user. But Vault has made a conscious choice to put the technology in the background, and although “everything is Web3 enabled,” he says, it’s not germane to the fans’ relationship with artists. “Nobody asked what the tech stack of Spotify is,” he points out. “They just use the product.”
Sing, a Seattle-based startup that sells both digital collectibles and physical merchandise, also puts Web3 technology in the background. “We don’t talk about NFTs,” says CEO Geoff Osler. “We don’t lead with that, because I don’t think people care.” But Sing has the same end goal as early NFT proselytizers: to facilitate a relationship between artists and their biggest fans while allowing artists to realize more value from those relationships. “We think that artists should make a great deal more money than they already do on the releases,” says Osler. “And that there’s this overall feeling — at least among superfans — that there’s a gap in the market. People want to own their music and own that connection with the artists.”
Speculation isn’t gone, but it’s migrated. Blockchains like Solana that have lower transaction costs and higher speeds than Etherium have become “hotbeds” for the trading of memecoins, says Hu. Rather than pump money into NFTs, people are buying into the TrumpCoin and the Hawk Tuah coin. “In certain segments of pop culture and politics, I’d say the appetite for high-risk digital assets remains really strong,” she says.
But players in the music space seem content to focus on practical use cases and leave the speculation to memecoin hustlers. “Once we come out of this period, and people start to accept blockchain tokens, there’s some very, very interesting stuff that the technology will enable,” says Osler. “But for now, meet them where they are. Let’s sell them records from artists they love. Show them there’s this amazing digital stuff that goes along with it, and that it’s collectible, and just leave it at that.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: NurPhoto / Getty / TikTok
TikTok is back in the Apple Store and Google Play stores for US users.
The popular social media platform officially returned to Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store for US users on Thursday after the companies removed it on Jan.19.
A federal law banning TikTok as of Jan.19 because TikTok’s Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, failed to divest its ownership of the app forced both companies to pull it from their US stores. Failure to adhere to the law by still hosting or distributing TikTok in the US would result in penalties, $5,000 per user or $850 billion in fines because the platform boasts it has 170 million US users. Hence, it’s not surprising both companies yanked the app from their stores.
TikTok gained an ally in Donald Trump, who initially spearheaded the app’s banning before he lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden. Unfortunately, after returning to the White House, Felon 47 signed an executive order on Jan.20 instructing his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, not to enforce the ban for 75 days.
The executive order also instructed Bondi “to issue a letter to each [TikTok] provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct’ as of Jan.19 throughout the 75-day extension.
According to Bloomberg’s report, Bondi sent Apple and Google letters on Thursday.
In a blog post, TikTok celebrated its return to both stores: “The TikTok app is now available for download from the App Store and Google Play. Our U.S. users can download the latest version of our app and continue to create, discover, and share what they love on TikTok.”
How The TikTok Ban Jig Played Out
What a turn of events following TikTok’s loss in its appeal to the Supreme Court, claiming the ban was in direct violation of the First Amendment.
Following the court’s decision, TikTok shut down on Jan.18, a day before the ban was supposed to start, before restoring service after Donald Trump vowing not to enforce the ban. When US users opened the app, they were greeted by a message telling them the app was back thanks to Orange Mussolini.
Users on X, formerly Twitter, have been reacting to the app’s return to the Apple Store and Google Play store; you can see those reactions in the gallery below.
1. Serious question
5. Accurate
TikTok has returned to the app stores of Apple and Google in the U.S., after President Donald Trump delayed the enforcement of a TikTok ban. TikTok, which is operated by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, was removed from Apple and Google’s app stores on Jan. 18 to comply with a law that requires ByteDance to divest […]