Rauw Alejandro Partners With TikTok to Promote Latest Album

What forced-sale deadline? TikTok is continuing to ramp up its artist features, now including a Rauw Alejandro partnership centering on the Puerto Rican's latest album.

TikTok and San Juan-born Rauw formally announced their tie-up today, on the heels of the app's October collaboration with Coldplay as well as a promotional pact involving BTS' Jin earlier in November.

The ByteDance-owned platform is billing the newest of the unions as a comprehensive “in-app experience” revolving around the mentioned 18-track album, Cosa Nuestra.

Said experience includes the usual elements – like “a themed profile frame,” “four interactive challenges,” animated album art, and a push to save that album to standalone streaming services such as Spotify.

However, the multifaceted marketing effort also extends to a more significant “live concert airing alongside a special livestream” – and new merch to boot. Referring to a TikTok-exclusive t-shirt and the vinyl edition of Cosa Nuestrathis merch is available to purchase via 31-year-old Rauw's newly launched TikTok Shop.

Bearing in mind the 16.3 million TikTok followers to Rauw's credit, one needn't stretch the imagination to see how the physical products, thanks in part to the exclusive livestream, could find a substantial number of on-platform buyers. Meanwhile, the artist (who, for reference, has 46.43 million Spotify monthly listeners) in a statement touted the perceived fanbase-communication advantages of TikTok.

“For me,” relayed Rauw Alejandro, “it's an honor to be the FIRST LATIN artist to partner with the team at TikTok for this massive campaign. This platform has been an outlet to express myself creatively and talk to my fans in a different way. For me, that's everything.”

Regarding the in-app experience's bigger-picture importance, TikTok is continuing to underscore its effectiveness as a music-promotion tool despite grappling with high-profile operational challenges.

Most notably, those challenges include those initially highlighted forced-sale deadline in the US – ten top of hurdles in nations such as Canada. Additionally, although the subject is receiving relatively little attention at present, TikTok is apparently adamant about inking label-specific licensing deals as opposed to reupping with indie collective Merlin.

At the points' intersection, many in the industry couldn't care less about the stateside fate of TikTokwhich has reportedly proposed materially less lucrative payment terms to individual indies than under the Merlin agreement.

Nevertheless, even with TikTok's far-from-ideal positioning when it comes to regulatory scrutiny in nations around the globe – not to mention stiff competition from Shorts, Reelsand to some extent Spotify – TikTok's ByteDance parent is now worth a staggering $300 billion, according to reports.