TikTok has announced a new partnership with ticket-seller AXS, which will enable TikTok users to purchase tickets to upcoming events in-stream, while also providing more options for artists looking to promote their shows.
As you can see in this sequence, via the new AXS integration, TikTok users will be able to tap through to get more information about an upcoming event in the app. You’ll then be able to connect through to the AXS website to make a ticket purchase.
Which is not directly integrated into TikTok itself, but it’s a more streamlined means to purchase tickets from promotions in the app.
Which is important, considering the role that TikTok now plays in music discovery in particular. According to research, TikTok users are significantly more likely to both discover and share new music content in the app, while 75% of its users also find new artists via TikTok clips.
That’s also made TikTok a critical consideration for record labels looking to showcase their latest artists and tracks, with the platform sparking new careers, rejuvenating older ones, while it even has some artists changing the names of their songs to better align with in-app trends.
Though, of late, TikTok has suffered a blow on this front, due to its ongoing licensing dispute with Universal Music, which has seen Universal pull its tracks from the app. Universal manages some of the biggest music stars on the planet, including Taylor Swift, Adele, Drake, and Billie Eilish, and without them, TikTok runs the risk of becoming less relevant as a music discovery tool.
At present, Universal claims that TikTok is offering way less than its previous agreement to license its music, while TikTok claims that it’s of more value to Universal than Universal is to it. The stalemate has gone on for months, with no end in sight, and it could end up having a bigger impact on the app, especially if TikTok takes a similar approach to negotiations with other labels in future.
But right now, for many artists, TikTok remains a critical consideration, and as such, the capacity to promote and sell tickets in-stream is a big bonus.
And it’ll also help to expand TikTok’s functionality into purchases, which is where the app really wants to be. The Chinese version of TikTok now makes the majority of its income from in-stream shopping, and the more that TikTok can encourage similar behavior, the more it can push to evolve user activity beyond just entertainment.
It’s another small step along this path, but an important one in the broader scheme.
The new TikTok/AXS partnership is now live in the US, UK, Sweden and Australia.
