It appears that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is looking to enter the music streaming game. Nearly a year ago, ByteDance reportedly filed a trademark for “TikTok Music” in Australia. Six months later, ByteDance filed for a similar trademark in the U.S. This week, the tech giant filed for additional “TikTok Music” trademarks in the U.K., Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Malaysia and Costa Rica. Now, reporters at several tech publications are suggesting that ByteDance could launch a global music streaming platform in the near future.
“Considering how intertwined music discovery is with TikTok, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the company launched a music streaming app of its own,” Emma Roth of The Verge reported earlier this week.
“According to the filing, the service would let users purchase, play, share, and download music. It would also allow users to create, share, and recommend playlists, comment on music, as well as live stream audio and video.”
As Roth pointed out, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the company were to launch a music streaming service. Not only do certain artists seemingly tailor the music for increased streams on the app, but marketing teams at major labels push their artist’s work on the app. More importantly, ByteDance launched a music streaming service in 2020 called Resso. According to a recent report, the service had amassed more than 40 million users across India, Brazil, and Indonesia as of November 2021. Additionally, a report from Insider found that Resso’s monthly active users have grown by more than 300% in India over the last year.
It’s unclear what all of this would mean for the likes of TIDAL, Apple Music, Spotify, Audiomack, YouTube Music or Soundcloud, but it’s something keep an eye on moving forward.
