How Canadian Artist Lubalin Is Using TikTok To Elevate His Music Career

This week’s episode of TikTok’s For You podcast hosted by Brittany Broski features artist and content creator Lubalin. Known for his alternative R&B style, the Canadian musician originally turned to TikTok not only as a means for promoting his music through additional exposure, but also to gain more creative control over his artistry. Since joining the platform, Lubalin has been able to amass three million followers through his ‘Internet Drama’ series and skits, finding unique ways to blend his artistry into his videos.

Broski: I feel like every creator sort of goes through the process of figuring out what to do after two, three, four viral videos. Do you ever worry about being pigeonholed into that because you make serious music outside of the ‘Weird Al’ type of thing?

Lubalin: It crossed my mind, but I think part of it was the concept of knowing that if TikTok worked, then it would be using my skills, and there would be this crossover where a more serious version of the songs would be available. Also, there is the value that people seem to be getting. I’ve gotten messages from people saying that they find the videos helpful and that it brightens their day. That’s amazing and has so much value. I saw this one TikTok the other day where somebody said TikTok is a place where you make videos, and if one of them blows up, that is your whole channel forever. That is kind of true, but at the same time, that’s fine.

Broski: I know you talked about how you like to do everything yourself, but with the collaborative nature of the internet—are you down for that, or feel like you should be doing it?

Lubalin: I think it is a mix—there is an ideal world where I have infinite time, I do everything, and it comes out perfect. There is an invisible cost mental wise with trying to figure all of this out. I need to process interactions, and go through to see if I said anything silly, or even see if they possibly misunderstood something. There was one time where I think we did 30 interviews in a week, and there was no time to go over anything—which can be a good thing, but it was exhausting.