ByteDance might be debuting TikTok Music

The Future. TikTok parent company ByteDance is working on a music streaming service called TikTok Music. Combining the cultural cache of the world’s most popular social platform with a music streamer may revolutionize music streaming… and force Spotify to speed up its own social ambitions.

Play the hits
According to Insider, ByteDance is cashing in on TikTok’s cache as a force in music.

• ByteDance has filed a trademark application in both the U.S. and Australia for “TikTok Music.”
• The proposed mobile app would let users “purchase, play, share, download music, songs, albums, and lyrics.”
• The app would also allow users to “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 rodeo in converting users enjoying TikTok for free into subscribers of a paywalled music platform. The company pulled off a similar strategy in Brazil with another one of its apps, Resso. While TikTok users could only hear a song clip on the app, a button on the videos directed them to Resso, where they could listen to the entire track.

Culture creator
It may be a while until TikTok Music comes to fruition (if ever). Still, the move by ByteDance shows how much of a force in the music industry TikTok has become, not only creating viral hits but becoming a launch pad for even top musicians to release new music. At this point, every label has a TikTok strategy.

And unlike other music streamers, TikTok is also a social platform. For artists and labels, the ability to navigate seamlessly between where music is released and a primary platform where music becomes a conversation piece may be too good to pass up.