If you are the kind who falls victim to Instagram and Tiktok’s catchy earworms, you will either be extremely delighted or extremely annoyed to find out that TikTok is launching their own music streaming app. Since the platform is already so intertwined with music discovery, it is the logical next step for the parent company, ByteDance.
The company has officially filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for “TikTok Music” in May. The service will allow users to play, purchase, share and download music (similar to Spotify and Apple Music). It will additionally allow users to create, share, and recommend playlists, comment on music, as well as livestream audio and video, taking inspiration from TikTok itself (because what is the point of content without other people’s unwanted opinions).
ByteDance is not new to music streaming. The Resso streaming app was its first endeavour in the field in India, Brazil, and Indonesia. It has similar features to the “TikTok Music” filing. The company even uses TikTok to bring its audiences to Resso, with a button that redirects users to Resso so they can listen to the full version of a song they’re interested in. This move on the Brazilian version of the app works well to keep users within the ByteDance ecosystem.
That said, it isn't too clear whether ByteDance plans on developing the music streaming app based on the Resso framework, or if it will do something more creative and stray off the beaten path. And who knows, it could follow TikTok’s footsteps and take the world by storm (and hopefully won’t get banned in this country).