The Participation Engine
In the world of TikTok, a curious phenomenon unfolds. An artist's success isn't measured by how many people watch their video, but by how many people use their sound. The path to virality isn't consumption—it's participation.
This isn't new.
Before algorithms and smartphones, music spread through a different kind of network. When The Beatles released "Yesterday," its power wasn't just in how many people heard it, but in how many people played it. Each cover version, each amateur rendition in a smoky bar, each music teacher showing students those iconic chords—these were all participation events.
The mechanic is simple: Success comes when your work becomes raw material for others.
Folk songs traveled across America not through mass media, but through people making them their own. "House of the Rising Sun" didn't need an algorithm to find its audience—it needed musicians who loved it enough to learn it, adapt it, and share it with their audiences.
We've always been remixers. We've always been amplifiers.
What's changed is the feedback loop. What once took months now takes hours. What once required physical proximity now happens across continents. The dive bar has become the For You page.
But the core remains: When others participate in your work, they become invested in its success. They're no longer passive consumers—they're co-creators in a larger story.
The most powerful marketing has always been participation marketing. Not "look at this" but "try this." Not "watch me" but "join me."
The question isn't whether your work can get views. The question is whether your work can get used.
And that's a question worth asking, whether you're on TikTok or not.
