TikTok continues to cement itself as the key hub for online music engagement, with its live stream broadcast of the latest “Tomorrowland” electronic music event drawing in more than 74 million viewers across both weekends of the event.
That bests TikTok’s previous Tomorrowland record back in 2023, which brought in 16 million live viewers.
The popularity of the event once again underlines the power of TikTok to drive music engagement, which also extends to its broader coverage of the multi-weekend festival within the app.
As per TikTok:
“As Tomorrowland's year-long Official Content Partner, TikTok had access to the very best music and artists at the festival, broadcasting a 24/7 LIVE stream from the MainStage, Freedom Stage and OneWorldRadio, hosting the world's leading DJs and producers at our Content Studio, and sharing it all in the #Tomorrowland in-app content hub on TikTok. The TikTok community turned up in droves, enjoying more than 2.4 billion views of #Tomorrowland content during the two weeks, making Tomorrowland the biggest festival account on TikTok with over 9.2m followers, an increase of over 1.9m new followers over the two weeks.”
It’s another important indicator for TikTok, both in terms of music engagement, which has become a key driver of its popularity, and the rising interest in its livestream content.
Livestreaming is central to TikTok’s broader commerce plans, with the Chinese version of the app driving huge interest in livestream shopping, which has provided a major revenue stream for the app.
Indeed, the Chinese version of TikTok, called “Douyin,” generated in $US490 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2024 alone, with a significant portion of that coming via shopping live streams. By comparison, TikTok generated around $US33 billion in GMV, across all other markets.
Live shopping has been a revolution of sorts in the Chinese market, and as such, TikTok has been hoping to replicate its success with Western audiences, though TikTok users haven’t expressed the same interest in such as yet.
But interest is growing. Last year, TikTok generated over $100 million in sales on Black Friday, which was triple the result it generated in 2023. Celebrity-led livestreams played a big part in this, and combined with its steadily growing livestream viewership, there are signs that TikTok’s shopping streams could eventually gain more ground with users.
The popularity of its Tomorrowland broadcast is another positive in this respect, and it could be that TikTok’s livestreams are set to move to the next stage of relevance.
