The Echo Vol. 18 - The great relatability in the sky

GET READY TO RUMBLE

This week’s Echo is as awesome as always :)

GLOBAL TIKTOK TREND (SOUND) OF THE WEEK

LOCAL TIKTOK TREND (SOUND) OF THE WEEK
Estonia

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SOCIAL MEDIA:
TikTok expands monetization and affiliates

TikTok has launched “TikTok Go”, an opt‑in affiliate program currently for travel and lifestyle creators. It lets them earn commission by posting about hotels directly on TikTok with no outside links or complex sign‑ups. Creators pick from hotel partners, share content, and earn when bookings come from their videos.

A simplified hotel affiliate tool further lowers the barrier, with plans to expand into dining, experiences, and brand deals.

For travel brands and music marketers, this means new real‑time discovery opportunities, like creators posting reviews or destination tours during events, prompting instant bookings.

DATA | THE WORLD OF MUSIC QUANTIFIED

Spotify’s weekly global top 5 songs

— #1. Golden | KPop Demon Hunters Cast // 52.7 m weekly streams

— #2. back to friends | sombr // 38.5 m weekly streams

— #3. The Subway | Chappell Roan // 37.7 m weekly streams (NEW)

— #4. Ordinary | Alex Warren // 34.2 m weekly streams

— #5. Your Idol | KPop Demon Hunters Cast // 31.4 m weekly streams

Spotify’s weekly global top 10 artists

— #1. Bad Bunny // Latin trap

— #2. Taylor Swift // Pop

— #3. Drake // Pop

— #4. The Weeknd // Alternative R&B 

— #5. KPop Demon Hunters Cast // KPop

— #6. Justin Bieber // Pop

— #7. Fuerza Regida // Regional Mexican

— #8. Billie Eilish // Alternative Pop

— #9. Arijit Singh // Playback Singer

— #10. Morgan Wallen // Country

TIKTOK VIDEO OF THE WEEK:
“Friends? Friends.”

Views: 54,000,000 | Likes: 7,600,000

This TikTok is from a pretty famous creator, but that’s not the only reason why it has over 50M views. Here are some things everyone can learn from:

— #1. Perfect pacing. The moment you start watching, you already know the emotional premise: two people who just broke up asking if they still want to be friends. It’s short, tight, and leaves no dead space, which means a ton of people watch until the end (or even rewatch).

— #2. Emotional hook with relatability. A breakup is usually never a nice thing. The pain here is what makes people hooked to the clip. The conversation is relatable to almost anyone who’s had a relationship end, and the sunset backdrop makes the mood bittersweet.

— #3. Stunning cinematography. Filmed during golden hour, every shot is soaked in warm light. The angles are intentional, the framing is awesome, the background is beautiful and uncluttered, and the choice of sad-but-soft audio matches perfectly. In many ways it feels more like a short film than a TikTok.

— #4. Caption + call-to-action synergy. The video invites viewers to tag someone they “still want to watch the sunset with.” It’s specific, emotionally loaded, and irresistibly shareable. In other words, exactly the kind of thing that spreads like wildfire in the algorithm.

MUSIC EVENT OF THE WEEK:
Oasis reunion Dublin

The Oasis reunion shows at Dublin’s Croke Park on August 16 and 17 are set to be some of the biggest live music events of the year, drawing over 160,000 fans across the weekend.

Expect the Gallagher brothers to deliver their classics backed by a crowd singing every word at full volume. The scale, nostalgia, and sheer energy of the event make it must-go experience if you’re anywhere near Dublin and able to get a ticket. Like seriously, who doesn’t like Oasis?

TIP OF THE WEEK
5 content ideas for getting a sound viral

Many people think a viral sound spreads simply because it’s good. While this can be true, it’s often not the full story. Instead, many sounds spread because creators give it reasons to be used. Here are 5 content ideas that do just that:

5 content ideas

— #1. Create a built-in challenge. Pick a part of your song and show a clear, repeatable action people can copy. It can be a movement, transition, or edit beat. If you don’t give them a use case, they won’t bother.

— #2. Show the transformation. Film a quick before-and-after. A dull scene before the beat hits, and a high-energy one after. People love using sounds that make their own “glow-up” edits work.

— #3. Use it to solve a problem. Frame your sound as the perfect background for a specific type of content, such as workouts, outfit reveals, travel edits. Give it a purpose and it’ll travel further.

— #4. Pair your sound with an unexpected trend. Don’t just join music trends: hijack a non-music trend and make your sound the twist. It gets you new audiences who weren’t even looking for music.

— #5. Create a duet bait moment. Pause mid-video, look straight into the camera, and leave a space for someone else to “reply” with their own take. You’ve just built a collaboration machine. This mainly works for an established creator.

PARASITION: Campaign breakdown

ROUND-UP 

— Clashing emotions can be a great way to go about making short-form content (use a sound with one vibe and visuals with another)

— Trends with high relatability are still the strongest on TikTok

— Edgier / darker songs have performed very well recently

— TikTok is expanding native monetization / affiliate solutions, meaning it will be easier than ever for companies to work directly with creators

Thanks for joining us for this week’s Echo - we truly hope it benefited you in some way.

If you work in music you should definitely reach out to us at Parasition. We make tracks go viral, and we want nothing more than to work with you! 🕺🚀