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Addison Rae, who is now a signed recording artist with Columbia Records, first became popular as a content creator. Before her music career took shape, Rae was a college student who posted short dance videos to TikTok for fun.
She recently appeared in a podcast hosted by The New York Times, titled Popcast. In the May 30, 2025, episode, Addison Rae shared that in her early days on TikTok, which was 2019, she was paid $20 per post via PayPal by record labels to use their artists' tracks in her videos. Her consistent posting schedule of her dance videos reportedly caught the attention of industry professionals.
According to The New York Times report dated June 3, 2025, Rae's consistent engagement helped her grow a substantial following, eventually helping her step into the entertainment industry. She even landed a leading role in her debut film, He's All That (2021) and then appeared in Thanksgiving (2023). In 2021, she also dropped her first single titled Obsessed, which was later included in her EP, AR (2023).
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Addison Rae talks about getting paid to post TikTok videos: More details
In the latest episode of Popcast, Addison Rae discussed her early days of creating content. In 2019, when TikTok was still becoming mainstream, Rae was a student at Louisiana State University and was also among the first to recognize the platform’s potential.
During the conversation, Rae mentioned how record labels would pay her a meager amount in exchange for posting short dance videos featuring their artists’ songs.
“It was actually really sketch. I was like: ‘Did the $20 hit the PayPal yet?!’”
Most popular influencers today pull thousands for a single branded post on their social media handles due to the rise of "influencer culture", but Addison Rae started small and strategic.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is really interesting, that the music industry was really leaning on it,’” she said.
She started posting on the app more often, uploading up to eight videos a day and focusing on trending dances and sounds. Soon, she dropped out of college and became one of the app’s first mega-stars.
More about Addison Rae's debut album, Addison
On April 23, 2025, Addison Rae announced her debut album, Addison, via Instagram. She captioned the post:
"Addison. June 6th. 💐💐💐💐 Self-titled debut album!!!! I love the entirety of this project with all of me. A mirror. A deep desperation and desire to understand myself better. A true collection of my proudest work yet. My dream cover. My dream collaborators. Pre-save now to prepare a sweet home for her. 🩷💞🩵🌼"
The album is supposed to be Rae's big entry into the music industry following her success as an influencer and beauty entrepreneur. The album rollout began with the single Diet Pepsi, which also had a black-and-white music video directed by Sean Price Williams. The director previously worked with Sabrina Carpenter for Please Please Please (2024).
Diet Pepsi had mid-tempo pop, sound with vocal stylings that have been compared to Lana Del Rey and Britney Spears' styles, according to People magazine.
As of June 4, 2025, Addison Rae has more than 12.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 34 million followers on Instagram, and 88.3 million followers on TikTok.
