Towards Dancer-Centric Social Media Platforms
How Social Media Can Elevate Dancers
Every time a dance challenge goes viral on TikTok, the world watches. The Renegade dance helped propel K CAMP's song to the top of the charts, but for months, the teenage choreographer behind the trend went unrecognized. Millions mimic the moves, the music skyrockets up the charts, and yet—the choreographers behind these cultural moments often remain invisible. Despite being at the forefront of global trends, including the k-wave, dancers and choreographers are rarely recognized or compensated for their contributions. Social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram have become the new stages for dance, but they’ve failed to support the very artists who drive their success.
Imagine a world where dancers receive the credit and revenue they deserve, where choreography is as protected and celebrated as music. This article explores how social media can evolve into a dancer-centric ecosystem—a future where revenue sharing, discovery, and attribution empower dancers to build sustainable careers.
YouTube: Who Owns My Dance?
Lia Kim, co-founder and co-CEO of 1MILLION Dance Studio, which boasts one of the largest dance studio channels on YouTube with over 26 million subscribers, revealed in an article that the channel has made a total of $0 since its inception due to music copyright claims on all videos. The revenue redirected to music copyright proprietors is estimated to be substantial.
This isn’t an isolated case. Matt Steffanina, one of YouTube's most prominent US-based choreographers with 14.7 million subscribers, shared in a video that despite his videos generating an estimated $15 million in potential revenue, he hasn’t earned a single dollar from his dance content due to record label claims. His experience highlights how even the most successful creators are unable to monetize their work, as all ad revenue is funneled to music copyright holders.
Few can justify this, but it remains the current standard and indicative of how dancers—and their ability to make a sustainable livelihood—are treated. At the core of this issue is YouTube's Content ID system, which institutionalized and operationalized music and film copyright in the digital age. Music labels upload audio files of their songs so that YouTube can automatically identify and flag videos containing music snippets longer than five seconds as copyright infringement. Depending on deals made with respective music labels, the labels can claim the entire ad revenue from flagged videos.
This system, while efficient for music copyright proprietors, leaves dancers and choreographers uncredited and uncompensated for their work. The value they bring to videos—often in the form of choreography that drives engagement for both the platform and the music—is neither acknowledged nor monetized. To balance this equation, platforms like YouTube could explore systems that account for and reward the contributions of dancers. Integrating choreography recognition into the YouTube Content ID system could enable automatic attribution, allowing choreographers to receive credit when their work appears in videos. More importantly, YouTube could introduce shared ad revenue pools for dance creators, similar to how music copyright holders benefit today. This would ensure dancers not only gain visibility but also earn a fair share of the revenue their choreography generates for the platform.
TikTok: Beyond the Sound
TikTok has revolutionized how dance trends emerge and spread globally. Its algorithm is finely tuned to amplify creative content, and dance has become one of the platform’s defining features. From the Renegade to Savage Love, choreographed moves have turned ordinary users into influencers and propelled songs to the top of the charts. But while TikTok thrives on dance content, the platform still lacks a crucial feature: native discovery and attribution for the choreographers behind these viral trends.
Currently, TikTok organizes videos primarily under “sounds,” linking content back to musicians and copyright holders. While this system effectively promotes music, it overlooks the dancers whose choreography drives much of the platform's engagement. Though there's a strong self-policing etiquette where users credit choreographers with “dc: @username” in captions, this informal system is inconsistent and often lost as trends evolve and are replicated. Without a platform-level solution, proper recognition for choreographers remains fragmented.
Imagine a TikTok where discovering a dance trend is as seamless as finding a viral sound. A native choreography discovery feature could mirror the sounds system by automatically detecting established dance moves in videos and tagging them with a “Choreography” label. This tag would link directly to the original choreographer’s profile and a dedicated trend page, allowing users to explore related content just as they do with popular sounds. To further enhance engagement, TikTok could introduce a Dance Challenges tab, showcasing trending moves alongside their creators, encouraging participation while maintaining clear attribution.
By integrating choreography recognition technology, TikTok could automate the attribution process, improve content categorization, and refine personalized recommendations. This system would not only spotlight choreographers but also enrich the overall user experience—making it easier for viewers to trace the origins of trends, for influencers to participate while giving proper credit, and for the platform to foster a more vibrant, engaged dance community.
Instagram Reels: Profits in Motion
Why is TikTok the dominant platform for emerging dance trends? It’s not just the algorithm—it’s how TikTok integrates dance into the very core of its platform, making it easy for choreographers to gain recognition, followers, and brand deals. But when these viral trends migrate to Instagram Reels, the original creators often get lost in the shuffle. While Reels offers choreographers a platform to showcase polished content and build personal brands, it lacks the tools to support trend-driven dance discovery and attribution. Unlike TikTok’s viral-first approach, Instagram emphasizes community, relationships, and curated storytelling—yet it misses the opportunity to apply these strengths to dance content. Although Instagram’s Collab feature allows users to co-author posts and Reels, it requires mutual approval, making it impractical for spontaneous choreography credit when trends go viral. Without a system to automatically credit choreographers when their moves spread, Reels not only diminishes recognition but also limits the potential for deeper engagement and monetization.
To bridge this gap, Instagram could introduce Credit Tags, a feature that automatically identifies and tags original choreographers as visible co-creators in Reels. When a user uploads a dance video, the platform would detect if the choreography matches an existing trend and link it directly to the creator’s profile, ensuring that choreographers receive consistent recognition without relying on manual tagging or mutual approval.
In addition to automatic attribution, Reels could leverage Instagram’s commercial strengths by introducing In-App Choreography Challenges with Sponsored Rewards. Unlike TikTok’s organic challenge system, Instagram could formalize this process, allowing both brands and artists to create official dance challenges with rewards like exclusive merchandise, concert tickets, or monetary prizes. Participation in these challenges would be seamless—when users upload videos performing the challenge choreography, the platform would automatically recognize valid entries, add them to the challenge feed, and track their engagement. This would make it effortless for creators and brands to monitor how widely a challenge spreads, measure performance, and distribute rewards fairly to top participants. These challenges would integrate seamlessly with Instagram’s existing shopping and branded content tools, creating a unified system for fan engagement and monetization of dance content.
For example, HYBE, the powerhouse behind K-pop sensations like BTS, has successfully used dance challenges to promote new music. The Run BTS challenge saw participation from fellow HYBE artists like TXT, alongside fans worldwide, generating massive engagement. With Instagram’s in-app challenge feature, HYBE could formalize this approach—automatically recognizing and featuring fan submissions, tracking participation across the platform, and offering rewards like exclusive BTS merchandise or top participants could even get the chance to meet BTS members and perform the dance challenge with them, with these sessions posted on BTS’s official Instagram account.
At the same time, brands could harness this feature to amplify their marketing efforts. Companies like Nike or Spotify could collaborate with famous choreographers or artists to launch sponsored challenges, with Instagram automatically identifying participants who perform the correct choreography. These campaigns could also offer monetary rewards, exclusive promotions, or features on brand pages, turning Reels into a dynamic space where dancers receive meaningful commercial opportunities.
By integrating dance challenges for both artists and brands natively into its platform, Instagram Reels has the opportunity to redefine how dance content thrives: not just as fleeting trends, but as part of an interconnected ecosystem that rewards creativity and encourages the growth of dance culture. This would ultimately differentiate the Reels experience, positioning Instagram as a leader in the dance content space.
From Trend to Industry
Social media has changed how dance is shared and consumed, but it has not yet realized its full potential to support the creators who drive this vibrant content category. A dancer-centric future for social media would prioritize features like:
Choreography Attribution: Automated systems that consistently credit and promote the original creators of viral dances across platforms, ensuring they receive proper recognition as their work spreads.
Revenue Sharing Models: Structures that allow choreographers to earn from the content they create, similar to how music copyright holders benefit today.
Enhanced Discovery Tools: Categorization and indexing based on dance IP, enabling users to easily explore trends, discover new creators, and follow dance content.
Our solution to streamline attribution and discovery across platforms is encapsulated by the development of a Choreography ID system, which we aim to make accessible via an API. This system leverages advanced action recognition algorithms to analyze movement patterns, identify choreographies, and attribute them to their original creators. By embedding this technology, platforms can automate the crediting process, enhance content categorization, and even pave the way for the large-scale adoption of dance IP. This technology could facilitate new monetization models, allowing choreographers to license their work and track its use across multiple platforms.
More Than Just Likes
The question isn’t if these features will emerge—it’s when. Dance continues to shape culture and drive engagement on social media, and platforms must recognize choreography not just as creative content, but as valuable intellectual property. Ignoring this doesn’t just undermine the creators fueling their success—it overlooks an opportunity to build more engaging, monetizable ecosystems.
The dancers setting the trends deserve more than just likes. They deserve credit, compensation, and control over their creative work. By embracing choreography attribution, in-app discovery features, and revenue-sharing models powered by choreography recognition technology, platforms can transform dance from a fleeting trend into a sustainable content category. This shift won’t just empower dancers. It will open new monetization channels, deepen user engagement, and strengthen the cultural relevance of platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Own your movement.
MVNT
Last updated
