In Graphic Detail: How Sia’s Clip It launch shows the power of Roblox for musicians

Sia’s Clip It integration, which launched on December 12 and runs through the end of 2024, gives users access to a free selection of holiday-themed songs, as well as a variety of settings, animations and virtual items based on Sia’s wardrobe and music videos. It’s the first time a prominent mainstream musical artist has placed their music and branding inside Clip It, although the experience also sells custom music and animation packs such as September’s Phonk Pack.

“With Sia, it felt right to keep things free around the holidays, so basically it went super viral overnight and everyone was working on clips with it,” said Clip It developer Yevheniy “Genya” Shestopalko. “This has sparked a huge takeover of our feed, with more players discovering the content, getting excited, and making new clips.”

Sia’s Clip It launch has already caused a spike in user engagement numbers within the Roblox experience. To give a sense of the impact of the partnership, Neura Studios, the developer of Clip It, shared exclusive data with Digiday. Here are some of the key takeaways.

The average amount of time spent inside Clip It per user session reached a peak of 15.1 minutes during the weekend after Sia’s Dec. 12 launch — the game’s highest figure since summer 2024. In other words, Sia’s presence inside Clip It was additive; on top of convincing users to open the experience, it actually convinced them to spend more time inside of it. For a game that just launched its own ad products, this increased session time makes Clip It a more valuable opportunity for all of the brands engaging with its audience — not just Sia. 

“Music plays into people’s shared experiences on Roblox every day, and the platform is growing to be a place for music discovery. Here artists can expand reach, cultivate fandoms, and build communities, and creators can produce richer, more engaging experiences,” said Roblox vp of global brand partnerships and advertising Stephanie Latham. “We are excited to see more artists recognizing the cultural impact of Roblox and labels like WMG’s Atlantic Records exploring new ways to connect with our unique user and creator base that’s shaping today’s digital culture.”

By the first weekend following Sia’s Clip It launch, users inside the experience were streaming her music for an average of 8.4 million seconds per day, according to data shared with Digiday by Neura. In contrast, it took Clip It’s phonk pack — which sells for 399 Robux, or just under $0.50 — roughly eight weeks to achieve this level of engagement. Although some of the users who tuned into Clip It for the integration were likely Sia enthusiasts already, this means the artist’s decision to show up inside the Roblox experience has exposed her to a large audience of new potential fans.

Sia’s decision to launch inside Roblox’s version of TikTok comes at a potentially opportune time. As U.S. legislators work their way toward a potential TikTok ban in January, the shutdown of the platform could draw users toward alternative short-form video apps — including Clip It.

“Clip It already has 8 million monthly active users uploading and watching content, to the tune of 2.5 new clips every second, and 130-plus million views each month. And music is at the center of all that,” Shestopalko said. “The right sound or song is the difference between a good and great clip. So every time we’ve added licensed music, we’ve seen it take on a life of its own, and continue to grow and snowball, week after week, whether free or paywalled.”

In addition to the 8.4 million seconds per day that users listened to Sia’s music inside Clip It, players actually engaged even more with the musician’s ancillary content, including “emotes” (animations) and “scenes” (virtual settings). Between Dec. 12 and Dec. 18, Clip It users spent a total of roughly 85 millions viewing Sia settings in clips and 47 million seconds watching Sia animations, in addition to listening to 37 million seconds of Sia audio.

The virtual settings of Clip It are arguably a lighter lift for users to engage with than other content such as animations and songs, since users don’t need to explicitly claim them inside the experience in order to make clips with them. But the fact that Sia audio was actually the least-engaged-with aspect of the musician’s takeover of “Clip It” shows how artists are able to use Roblox to connect with fans in new and unique ways.

“Content is really a form of communication,” Shestopalko said. “We see trends crop up all the time on Clip it, where a particular song, or scene, or dance gets really popular. And when it does, lots of people riff on it, and make some really incredible stuff.”