Lizzo has posted a TikTok video in which she makes some interesting points about the state of the music industry and why it’s harder for artists to crossover to a mass audience in 2025.
Speaking directly to camera, she introduced herself as someone who has had “multiple” Number One hits. "The music industry is in complete shambles right now,” she said. “And you can use that to your advantage."
"Back in the day, the music industry was very algorithmic, as any other industry was. But that industry was controlled to a certain extent," Lizzo explained. "Now that we are in the digital streaming age, there is no control over the algorithm. And it is stressing people the f*** out, myself included.”
"Every major artist from Lady Gaga to Drake has dropped albums this year, and yet everyone is saying there's no song of the summer.
"I'm gonna be completely honest with you guys: It's not because the music isn't incredible, it's because the way that the algorithm is set up, no one can serve the masses anymore.”
Lizzo explained that she herself had released a mixtape that featured Doja Cat and SZA “and yet there are people who don’t know that I dropped music.”
She then went on to bemoan the decline of radio stations and “clear channels” for artists to promote their wares. “Now you have to serve your people,” she said before she explained that this summer she started a private page, Lizzo IRL, “an incredible experience” which gives her the opportunity “to talk to my fans one on one and give them the exclusives, share music with them, share my deep thoughts with them.”
“Because with this algorithm, nine times out of ten your music is not even going to reach your fanbase,” she said before suggesting that social media – like TikTok, ironically – is not a good way of spreading the word about your music.
Lizzo, really, is talking about the decline in broadcasting, of gatekeepers, of trusted corners of the media that nurtured up and coming artists. Her solution though is puzzling: “Make as much music as possible, make as much content as possible and put it on the Internet.” Wouldn’t that be subject to the dreaded algorithm too?
She mentioned Taylor Swift and her army of Swifties as an example of how established artists can get it right, before concluding: “This year has been an incredible year for music. It just hasn’t been on your algorithm.”
Food for thought, anyway.
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