How to write music that goes viral

Can you write music that goes viral? Should you? Learn five key tips for writing songs that will grab attention and boost chances of success.

How to write music that goes viral

by Sammy Hakim via Bandzoogle

Let’s face it, these days it’s rare to open up TikTok or one of the other popular social media platforms and not stumble upon a song somewhere. From heartbreak ballads and political anthems to theme songs for spicy accountants, you can find bops for any and every situation (depending on your algorithm, of course).

As musicians, we’ve all wondered how to emulate that success. While there’s no failsafe way to force the algorithm gods to favor you, we do have some tips and tricks to help you get started on the path to their good graces.

Here are five tips and tricks to keep in mind while writing music specifically with social media in mind:

1. What’s trending?

When writing songs aimed at social media success, the best way to start is by finding out what’s currently trending. Luckily enough, a few good scrolls through your app of choice should be enough to give you a wide sample of ‘research’. Just be sure that instead of logging on and mindlessly doom scrolling into oblivion, you’re taking note of the kinds of content (and accompanying music) you’re consuming.

Ask yourself what kind of videos are being pushed to your feed. Is there a specific camera angle or filter you can’t seem to get away from? What about subject matter?

Finding commonality in content that’s already going viral can help inform your decision as a writer and creative while you develop content of your own. After all, writing with social media in mind requires activating your marketing brain throughout the creative process. So keep notes as you’re scrolling. Brainstorm ideas and concepts. Figure out which aspects of trending content work within your musical world. Whether it jives lyrically, presentation-wise, or is some one-off viral moment that really hits home with you, you’re sure to notice some things that grab your eye.

On the off chance that nothing is compelling and your scrolling leads to a lack of muse, we suggest taking a look through trending hashtags or global charts. Usually there’s a word, or some idea there that can help you make an informed writing decision within your own work.

Once you have an idea of the kind of content being consumed and how it might fit into the content you make as an artist, the writing process can begin.

2. The opening hook

Now that you’ve looked at what’s currently trending, it’s time to get to writing. Think over the type of content that had you most enthralled versus what had you quickly swiping to the next video. These preferences are mostly subjective (hence the use of individualized algorithms on platforms like Tiktok), but you’re likely to find that the videos that kept you around all had something in common: an opening hook.

That doesn’t mean spilling all your secrets in the first line of your song, or writing an insane melody on a bizarre instrument to leave the crowd speechless in just a couple of seconds. An opening hook simply means including something to entice curiosity from the start.

How you choose to set up that hook in your song comes down to preference. Maybe for you it’s as simple as including a biting lyric about how someone you cared about did you wrong. Maybe it’s a heartfelt voicemail clip your mom left you.

For inspiration you might even ask a friend to give you a few lyric ideas to write about that you can capture on video. Whatever the line and sinker is, the hook you select will greatly inform your writing process.

When you’re first starting to write songs geared for social media, keeping these ideas in mind while working on a new song can be an incredibly helpful practice during the writing process.

It’s worth mentioning that once you’ve gotten into the practice of writing music with social media in mind, we recommend applying this same lens to music you’ve already written and released — you might be surprised to find that some of the existing songs have just as much viral potential for social media.

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3. Presentation

When writing songs aimed for social media, it’s important to consider the kind of presentation you want to put forward. How you choose to present your art online can inform the lyrical decisions, melody, kinds of content you create and more. For example, if you want your song to be funny and grabbing, you may want to start with a joke right out the gate. If you have a character you’d like to perform, you may want to ensure that all of your lyric ideas echo that character’s voice. If you know there’s a filter or a trending way to film that you’d like to try out, it could impact the direction of your writing.

With all the new types of content being released every second of every day, knowing how you plan to present and platform your work can help you make informed decisions while you’re still writing your songs.

4. Virality

As mentioned earlier, your marketing brain should be turned on when writing for social media. Now that you’ve researched writing for trends, developed a good opening hook, and figured out a way to present your music, you should ask yourself how that hook stands up to other viral content. When you watch it back, are you entertained? Does your content stand up to the content you thought was engaging during the research phase?

If you feel like it does, congratulations! You’ve just crafted your first song for social media, and it’s time to post and share! If not, head back to the writing table and keep finessing what you’ve built. Practice makes perfect. You’ve got this.

Now, reaching the end goal of writing something viral is often harder than it looks. In theory, having amazing content, that opening hook, and a thumb on the pulse of current trends should land you something compelling. But social media isn’t an art form, it’s a marketing tool — while following the tips above will help you create work aimed for social media success, it’s important to remember that viral uptake isn’t something you can really force or decide on. You can only try for it.

5. Write!

Last but not least, it’s important to remember that writing a song for social media is simply writing a song. You can put in all your time and add all the bells and whistles, but the music that actually connects to the audience will likely be the songs that are the truest to you.

Authenticity is something every human being craves, and while you can consider using tips and tricks, this is perhaps the most important one of them all: don’t lose soul while chasing an algorithm.

At the end of the day, there is no failsafe to beating the algorithms. It’s a lot of trial and error, mixed in with what makes your music uniquely you. We hope these tips and tricks help you think about your music differently as you write it, and maybe even help you get that first viral video started.