In The Mood For A Sea Shanty? How TikTok Has Become The New YouTube For Music
Tracks Like “Mood” & “Wellerman” Are Breaking Artists & Attracting Major Labels
Just a few weeks ago, Nathan Evans was delivering the Royal Mail in a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, called Airdrie. At 26, and with a new wife, he wasn’t pursuing the typical path to success that many artists find familiar. There were no flights to New York, fancy dinners or showcases with A&R folks or a cadre of managers and lawyers hyping him up. In fact, he had very few resources at his disposal. What he did have, though, was perhaps better than what any inside connection in the record business could have provided him — an account on TikTok.
When Nathan started posting videos on TikTok in March of last year, there was no way he could have predicted what was to come less than 6 months later. Many of his early videos featured him performing cover songs, and they seemed to average under 10,000 views each. He took requests from his followers and started to build engagement with his audience. In July, he posted his first sea shanty, a song called, “Leave Her Johnny,” and it wasn’t until November that he posted his second sea shanty, “The Last Shanty.” He posted another called, “The Scotsman” on December 23rd.
