The past decade has seen music streaming become the most popular way of finding new artists and music to listen to. Spotify and Apple Music have been at the top for years. YouTube Music slowly grew into third place. Nobody new has broken into that top three – but that could be about to change. TikTok owner ByteDance has filed a trademark application in the U.S for something known as ‘TikTok Music’.
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Insider suggests that TikTok Music would allow users to “purchase, play, share, download music, songs, albums, lyrics… live stream audio and video… edit and upload photographs as the cover of playlists.. [and] comment on music, songs and albums.”
This isn’t ByteDance’s first foray into the world of music streaming either. The company has its own music streaming app, Resso, which is only available in India, Brazil, and Indonesia. TikTok Music, on the other hand, would be a global threat to the current big three. And if it were to offer a better price, then Spotify could be in for a real shock.
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It makes sense for TikTok to take this route. The company is primarily about video and music. It feeds users content based on preferences. Those same principles would suit a music app, especially one with many users contributing to it. Users could encounter a song while scrolling and find it instantly on TikTok Music. We know this because TikTok already does this. Sort of. Users in Brazil click a button and are directed to the song’s page on Resso. If we ever see the TikTok Music app, this will likely constitute a key feature.
We’re not exactly sure what this app could look like, or understand fully what it could do. It’s possible that TikTok Music will just re-skin Resso, potentially saving the company money. For now, all we know is that ByteDance filed for a new trademark application. The potential app may release in six months’ time, two years, or never. So let’s just wait patiently for TikTok to get on with it.
Source: Engadget