No one disputes TikTok's importance for reaching younger audiences today. But insiders say the app's well of instant virality could be drying up.

"The difference in 2024 is that there's no clear cheat code to work TikTok's algorithm anymore," said Chris Berdine, an L.A.-based creative director who has worked on marketing campaigns for acts including Juice Wrld, Peso Pluma and the Chainsmokers. "We know that this platform is extremely important, but no matter what you try to do to hack it now, it's never consistent. Influencers don't carry the same weight as they once did."

Some artists genuinely enjoy the creative tools of TikTok, and Berdine's sympathetic to young artists' conundrums around it. "This mandate to constantly churn out content for TikTok — are any of these timeless artists of the past that we admire participating in this? Absolutely not," Berdine said. "But then you have younger artists that are like, 'Of course that's what you need to do'."

Imogene Strauss is a creative director working on the rollout for Charli XCX's album "Brat." She'd be remiss not to prioritize videos on the digital platform where Charli's fans gather.

"TikTok is is a huge and useful platform for most artists — it works really well for Charli," Strauss said. "We're in the middle of a big album campaign now, it would be devastating for our plan if a ban or licensing dispute happened."

Charli XCX is on Atlantic, so the UMG pullout didn't affect her. But the demands of cultivating an audience on TikTok take a toll too. Charli XCX recently posted a list of cringey marketing ideas for going viral on TikTok that she claims were sent to her team, like "Charli gets her nipples pierced at Claire's" and "Charli gets caught shoplifting at a mall and leaks the CCTV footage."

"TikTok stresses all artists out," Strauss said. "It's a constant and ruling platform that you have to feed now in addition to all the other other platforms. The amount of content that artists are expected to make would make your mind explode. She has lot of self-awareness about that, and with that post, she's trying to not hide those pressures."

For younger acts who have recently found viral fame there, their relationship to TikTok is as complicated as any romance they write songs about.

In 2022, the singer-songwriter Maddie Zahm released the single "Fat Funny Friend" on TikTok. The song is a painful lament for how she used feel about her body and relationships, and it was an instant smash there.

"When I posted it, my publisher called me and said, 'Go check TikTok,' and I saw so many people going through the same things," Zahm said. The song's earned nearly 30,000 fan video creations, and Zahm has 1.2 million followers there. In March, she played a packed El Rey Theatre show.

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