Does quantity prevail over quality? While the general discourse of the music industry still focuses on optimizing Meta and Google Ads to maximize “reach” and hopefully boost statistics… labels around the world have found another technique to try to take over the algorithm of a platform that has become essential over the years: TikTok.
Starting a trend is far from simple: the very principle of virality is that a post gains momentum overnight, as if by magic. With the increase in AI-generated content and the general rise in the number of influential accounts on social media, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to master their algorithm. There are not-so-hidden rules, however: the more an audio clip is used, the more likely it is to go viral. If we add thousands of so-called “micro-influencer” accounts to the mix… we get a recipe that is being tested around the world: “burner accounts.”
What is a burner account?
A “burner account” is an account – or rather multiple of the same-ish account – on which themed content is posted. The focus is less on the person who owns the account, but rather on the content itself.
The key to these accounts having and accumulating value is posting in quantity. Several times a day. And to prevent it from seeming repetitive, multiple similar accounts are created, posting the same content – all in the hope that one of the posts will “trigger” the algorithm and go viral.
Thus, specialized agencies – with evocative names like “Floodify” – are responsible for managing thousands, even tens of thousands of burner accounts. Gone are third-party playlist placements hoping to generate quality user streams, influencer campaigns are out: the goal is to make it seem like a track has been discovered by the masses.
This is largely made possible thanks to AI, with which thousands of similar content pieces can be generated, always using the same audio.
One main goal : blend into your everyday life.
The goal? Make sure the is audio “trending.” To do this, said audio needs to be used in thousands of short videos. The goal of this strategy is to make a sound trending as quickly as possible, so that users – real accounts, that is – notice the track and use it in their own videos.
The objective of this strategy is therefore not to make a track trending by attaching it to a known personality, a worldwide advertisement, or a film about to shatter audience records, but to blend into the everyday life of doomscrollers. By imitating the codes of the most shared and most viewed content by users scrolling to pass time, the audio accompanying the video aims to be heard multiple times, until it seems familiar, without having been “marketed.”
Burner accounts therefore only adapt a commercial adage that is the foundation of traditional advertising: the more a message is repeated, the more likely it is to be remembered. If a few decades ago a track went viral thanks to radio play, social media has largely replaced radio for the younger generation – labels’ attention is therefore directed toward these digital platforms where AI reigns supreme.
We find a lot of irony in this: while thinking it’s innovating, this strategy actually reproduces the codes of advertising slogans. And it only accentuates the already far too large place that social media occupies in the development of an artistic career. Will this inherently ultra-ephemeral, AI-generated and robotized content actually make tomorrow’s hits?
Sources: Billboard Pro, shesaid.so
