Should you use trending sounds on TikTok?
Not for talking videos. Videos with the creator's own voice got about 17% more views than the same creator's videos using someone else's sound. If you do use one, popular sounds did a little better than obscure ones.
What we found
- Your own audio got about 17% more views than a borrowed sound, and about 13% more views than a popular one.
- Popular sounds (used by 10+ creators in our data) did about 3% better than obscure borrowed ones.
- Most talking-head creators already use their own audio: 78% of videos.
- This is about replacing your voice with a sound, not music mixed quietly under your voice, which TikTok doesn't report.
Views by sound
Each kind of sound against the same creator's average video.
How we know: We compared each creator's videos using their own audio with their own videos using someone else's sound, across 1,512 TikTok creators who did both.
Read the full study: How long should your videos actually be?
Related questions
Do trending sounds boost views?
Not for talking-head videos. Popular sounds did better than obscure ones, but your own voice did better still (about 13% more views than a popular sound).
Should I add background music under my voice?
We can't tell yet: TikTok only reports whether the whole soundtrack is yours or a reused sound. We plan to measure background music directly.