Like millions of people, I joined TikTok during the pandemic — and quickly fell down its rabbit hole of major vibes and quick dopamine hits.
But TikTok can also be overwhelming if you don’t understand its particular language. As users know, the fun of the app often comes from videos that play with the inside joke or format of a trend — often, specifically, a TikTok trending “sound.” If you’re a creator looking to capitalize on a trending sound, how do you do it? And how do you make it gain traction or, just maybe, even go viral? I spoke with TikTok coach Jonathan Betournay to get the lowdown.
Simply put, a sound is the audio behind a TikTok video — like music, a clip from a TV show, or a funny noise. But most importantly, the audio from an uploaded video is usable to others who can then create their own videos from that same audio, either in a unique way or by playing off of the original video’s format or conceit.
A trending sound, then, refers to any specific audio that’s being used many times over by other creators in their videos — essentially, it’s a sound that has gone viral on the app.
For example, this Reading Rainbow theme song audio has been used more than 400,000 times as creators share interesting quandaries.
To use the sound from a TikTok video, click the small strip of scrolling text toward the bottom left corner of the video. This should bring you to a page where you can see all the other videos set to that sound. At the bottom of this page, click the floating red button that reads “Use This Sound.” You’ll then be taken to your camera’s view; and upon hitting the record button, you’ll hear the sound that will back whatever you choose to film or upload.
If your goal is to get views, you’ll need to pay attention to key signs that indicate a trending sound is at an optimal point for virality. When you click on a particular sound that’s been popping up on your For You Page (aka your main feed), look at the other videos being uploaded. If there are already tens of thousands there or if many were uploaded weeks ago, Betournay says you’re likely looking at a trend that’s dying down — and your video will languish according to TikTok’s algorithm.
Over time, TikTok has allowed for longer videos on its platform (you can now upload videos as long as three minutes), but shorter is still better. “Once you're past the 20 second length, it's really hard to keep the [viewer’s] attention, unless you're very entertaining,” Betournay says.
You can also streamline the numbers game by simply searching specific hashtags on the app and following creators like Betournay, whose page is often full of posts identifying individual sounds that are just starting to trend. The hashtag “trending sound alert,” for instance, can help narrow down your search for what sounds are on the upward swing.
Most trending sounds blow up because a very specific format is being played with repeatedly across the same videos. One of TikTok’s previous big trends, for instance, was the controversy of “couch guy”: a boyfriend who seems suspiciously unexcited (and may or may not be exchanging a phone with another woman) about his girlfriend’s surprise visit. Other TikTok creators have jokingly recreated the “couch guy” scene using the same audio, a version of Ellie Goulding’s “Still Falling for You.”
It’s imperative to use a trending sound to fit the format of the trend. But the hard part, Betournay says, is to do so while adding an idiosyncratic twist to it — something that unexpectedly flips an inside joke on its head, like for instance, a version of the couch guy scene, but with a bride and groom playing the parts on their wedding day. “If you can have some sort of creative visual that comes along with the same soundbites, then you've differentiated yourself,” Betournay notes.
“The most effective way of using trending sounds is ... if it fits your generation, if it fits your style in front of the camera,” Betournay says. “It's really hard for someone that starts to really determine [their] style in front of the camera, because we see ourselves one way, but our audience sees us a different way.” That means potentially playing with different personas and content types before finding what works. When Betournay started out on TikTok, he says he made videos of himself as a funny dad before almost unwittingly finding success with TikTok tutorials.
If the style you’ve settled on is specific enough, it can also give you an edge within a trend. The format of a trending sound can resonate particularly if you make it in a way that caters to a niche corner of the app — like, say, candle-making or “BookTok” (the book fanatic corner of the app).
Let’s be honest: Even if you take all the right notes, do your research, and hop on a trending sound in the perfect way, the odds of your video going viral are stacked against you. The key is to just lean into the app as a long game and stick with it. “The reality is that if you don't post videos, if you don't make videos, if you get scared about making videos, you won't go anywhere,” Betournay says. Expect nothing, have fun, and along the way, you just might hit the right buttons.