Big Machine Label Group Founder, President & CEO Scott Borchetta at Country Radio Seminar in Nashville (Photo Credit: CRB/CRS | Kayla Schoen)
Big Machine topper Scott Borchetta isn’t convinced that TikTok is a good place to find new talent. So why is he hiring TikTok specialists?
If you know the inner workings of TikTok, you might want to send Big Machine Label Group CEO Scott Borchetta an email. “We’ve got to be where people expect us to be,” Borchetta declared at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on Friday. “If you’re on TikTok, we need to be there. My last three hires for our label are people who are working TikTok.”
But how long will Borchetta be keeping his new hires? That likely depends on whether TikTok ends up producing serious superstars for the music industry — or even anything resembling long-term success. And so far, Borchetta isn’t impressed.
After hearing urgent pitches from Big Machine staffers to sign TikTok artists who where blowing up, Borchetta said he let them get signed elsewhere. “Not any of those that got signed to big deals have worked,” Borchetta said. “Not one of them, not yet. I’m not saying it won’t, but not one of them.”
“And I’m not including ‘Fancy Like,’ that was a huge moment, Walker [Hayes] got bless him, he’s been doing this for a long time, everyone’s very excited about that. But he had been working on that. I’m talking about a brand-new artist who got a big record deal because of TikTok in that moment.”
Perhaps Borchetta’s words are hitting like a thud. Certainly, it remains to be seen if a bonafide superstar emanates from Tiktok. In the country world, Priscilla Block is the TikTok-sensation du jour, though there’s a huge difference between getting signed to a major label and actually building a successful career.
All of which introduces the real game being played here. Instead of scouting TikTok for viral blowups, Big Machine is taking a push approach. “We’re used to wagging the dog. The dog is wagging us,” Borchetta said, while describing a new internal ‘Start Team’ within Big Machine.
So what are we learning here? Despite the heavy hype, it’s difficult to call this a real A&R vehicle — at least yet. It’s just too early to tell.
But a serious promotional platform? That’s obviously being recognized by Borchetta, who’s tripling down on promoting and growing content on TikTok. Just not so much sourcing it.