One day in 2018, baritone Babatunde Akinboboye decided to post a video to Facebook, thinking his friends would find it funny. The two-minute, 30-second video showed Akinboboye singing “Largo al factotum” from The Barber of Seville while Kendrick Lamar’s hip-hop song “Humble” played underneath. The bouncing rhythms of the aria almost perfectly matched the rhythm of Lamar’s track, creating a clever interplay across genre, melody, and language.

He woke up the next morning to find it had been viewed tens of thousands of times. Soon after, he began receiving messages from outlets like The Ellen DeGeneres Show, America’s Got Talent, and Time magazine with requests for interviews, collaborations, and more videos in the same style.

Since his video went viral, Akinboboye has expanded his professional repertoire to include the unofficial title of “opera influencer” — making him perhaps the first bona fide one of his kind. Today, he splits his time between his official performance schedule in houses like LA Opera and Detroit Opera and his content creation schedule. He posts an average of one original TikTok video per day at @hiphoperaguy and currently has over half a million followers. His content ranges from the educational (a deep dive on the lives of Montserrat Caballe or the Chevalier de Saint-Georges) to the performative (a silky-voiced rendition of “White Christmas” that invites other TikTok users to “duet” with him in their own videos) to the motivational (a video that shows Akinboboye speaking directly to his followers and encouraging them to start living their dreams).

Singers are finding that the popularity of video content gives them new ways to gain exposure, grow their careers, and generate revenue — and they are not the only ones who stand to benefit from the opportunities provided by this hyper-engaging form of content. Though some are moving cautiously, opera companies are finding that short-form video resources like Instagram Reels and TikTok are helping them engage younger audiences and promote themselves with their communities, and may play a key role in the future of their marketing activities.

Following the initial surge of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, Macy White, digital marketing manager at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, used her personal experience with TikTok and Instagram to begin developing online-only programming that would appeal to a younger and more diverse demographic of potential audience members.

Today, OTSL’s strategy incorporates online marketing content that is developed in-house as well as by local residents. The company runs a brand ambassador program for local high school and college students where participants learn about opera and attend shows in exchange for sharing related social media content. They also brainstorm with OTSL about ways to reach younger people.

Since April, the company has been working with influencers on a concert series called Opera Tastings. Social media enthusiasts in the food and beverage space put together menus designed to complement the “flavor” of various opera performances and partner with caterers and venues to execute the events. The gatherings have met their goal of attracting and engaging a younger audience by giving them an engaging entree into opera, White says.

OTSL has invited other influencers to participate in Opera Tastings as well, further expanding the reach of its events. It’s targeting people with 15,000 to 80,000 followers across platforms (specifically Instagram and TikTok) who culture and arts in the St. Louis area.

During and following the events, influencers and other attendees take photos and videos that are shared on their own platforms, which OTSL can ultimately convert into its own digital assets. That’s been a major bonus because of the way social media algorithms work. “Any video content is preferred in all of the feeds,” says White. She’s made some Reels following the Opera Tastings events, “and those have been really successful, just because of how the algorithm works and the way that the St. Louis community really embraces a local mentality of supporting organizations in the area.”

White does note that it’s important for companies moving into short-form video to set realistic expectations about what they can gain from the platform, given that measuring the success of video marketing can be slightly abstract. “One of our main goals is brand awareness, but that’s a little bit harder to measure than just strictly ticket sales,” she says. “For our tastings events with the influencers specifically, it’s been a lot of looking at our follower count and our page view count and the amount of clicks on our profile. All of those have doubled or tripled just in the span of the week that we’ve had the influencers there.”

Minnesota Opera’s marketing and communications director, Eric Broker, is also focusing in on using influencers and short-form video in the company’s social media strategy. “The goal has been general awareness and that intangible quality of creating buzz around a specific event, which is a hard thing to do,” he says. His team has been working with an influencer marketing firm to source talent and invite influencers to donor events like galas (the 2022 gala was the highest-grossing event in Minnesota Opera’s history), then giving them free tickets to popular shows like Carmen.

Broker and others are not jumping into TikTok with two dancing feet, however. Concerned about its effectiveness, the resources required to do it well, and fidelity of the artistic experience, some companies are holding off.

Broker is enthusiastic about creating a TikTok channel for Minnesota Opera in the near future. “TikTok right now is just the coolest social platform,” he says. “It’s the most authentic, it’s the least monetized, it’s the most real. I think it’s the most delightful platform, and you see a lot of people being very happy and positive. Data suggests that what you view online affects you and your emotions. So TikTok is a wonderful place to be.”

Having a presence on platforms like Tik- Tok also sends a powerful message, he believes. “It signals to people that opera is something that might actually have something to do with them. If they see us on TikTok, they’ll say, ‘Maybe someone involved in this has something in common with me.’”

Pittsburgh Opera has dipped its toe into the world of TikTok by using it to advertise productions during the 2021– 2022 season. “The data has been very encouraging so far in terms of clicks and engagements and shares and so forth. It’s fairly cost-effective from a cost-per-mille and a cost-per-click basis,” says Chris Cox, director of marketing and communications.

On the other hand, he acknowledges that the tone of most TikTok videos is not always a match for what an opera seeks to provide for a listener. “It has this sort of quirky, fun vibe where people are making silly videos of themselves lip-syncing and dancing,” he says. “It seems like a very good fit for something like The Magic Flute, which is a light-hearted show, but you don’t necessarily want to have the same tone when you’re advertising Blue, which is a very different kind of show. ... How can you still make it relevant and interesting and engaging to the people on TikTok who are seeing your ad?”

Implementing a short-form video presence is not as quick and easy as its name might suggest. “To actually have your own channel and really do it right is not a small time commitment,” says Cox. “You run the risk of spending an exorbitant amount of time, resources, and money on things that may or may not be flashes in the pan and not actually help move the needle for you.” But when used as part of a larger strategy, the investment can be worth it. “We know that as a communication vehicle, TikTok reaches a lot of people. It has a very engaged user base.”

Frank Luzi, vice president of marketing communication and digital strategy at Opera Philadelphia, has been similarly hesitant to dive too deeply into short-form video marketing. “We haven’t really gotten into TikTok yet,” he says. “I think artists are using TikTok really well. Companies are still trying to figure it out.”

Artists, on the other hand, have found short-form video an effective way to boost their own careers. Peter Barber, a bass-baritone and resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, has built a successful side business as a YouTuber and TikToker, with more than 50,000 subscribers on each platform.

His progression has a familiar story: Barber began posting a cappella singing and analysis videos on YouTube during the pandemic. He found a community of like-minded singers on Discord, an instant messaging site where you can join a virtually unlimited number of groups and chats, called servers. Barber joined a server called Bass Singing Nation and eventually became a mentor and ambassador in the group.

Though Barber’s best-performing pieces are generally contemporary or popular music pieces, his “famous operatic bass moments” — passages from The Magic Flute’s “O Isis und Osiris” or the duet in the Grand Inquisitor scene in Don Carlo — have drawn thousands of views on Instagram and TikTok. He’s been able to monetize most of his YouTube videos and receives support for his work through Patreon, an online service where members can donate monthly to an artist or project. He currently has 220 patrons giving anywhere between $1 and $100 monthly.

Soprano Teresa Castillo’s story is even more of a one-in-a-million shot and demonstrates the power of Tik-Tok’s reach. In 2020, she performed in a concert filmed by a friend, where she sang “Der Holle Rache” from The Magic Flute. “My friend Jordan was like, ‘Oh, this is a viral moment,’ so he posted it on his TikTok and it now has half a million views,” she says. “So then a couple months later, it ends up getting circulated, and I put it on my Instagram and it got over 100,000 views. Then a few months later, I get an email from Cory Lippiello [director of artistic programs] at Lyric Opera of Chicago saying that they’re looking for a cover for the Queen of the Night and asking if I’m interested.”

After a video of her singing as Maria in West Side Story went semi-viral on her TikTok, Castillo has been approached by other casting companies. There is a growing precedent for casting singers and actors and discovering pop stars via social media. Says Castillo, “The number of followers that you have on social media platforms does matter, and I’ve heard that it’s starting to matter in opera.” In her experience, the magic number is 10,000 followers.

If creators like Castillo, Barber, and Okinboboye are any indication, short-form video platforms have promise for artists looking to support themselves and their art. The TikTok hashtag #OperaTok, which collects videos of opera singers from auditions to opening nights, currently has 55.5 million views.