A new music streaming service trademarked by TikTok could be on the horizon. According to Insider, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance filed a trademark for TikTok Music in May at the US Patent and Trademark office. From the filing, it appears that TikTok Music will be a key competitor to current streaming titans such as Spotify and Apple Music, allowing users to share, download, play, and purchase music. In line with TikTok itself, TikTok Music would allow users to livestream audio and video, as well as to create, share, and comment on playlists.
Such a move would make sense for an app like TikTok, which since its rise in popularity has had somewhat of a symbiotic relationship with Spotify. Data has shown that TikTok users who discover new music via the app are more likely to follow and share the artists they discover on Spotify, and many songs trending on TikTok have been added to Spotify’s major playlists and charts.
This isn’t ByteDance’s first foray into music streaming either. In 2020, the company launched Resso in India, Indonesia, and Brazil. Resso has many of the same features and functions described by TikTok Music, and is already a key competitor to platforms such as Spotify in the markets where it is available. To date, Resso has an estimated 40 million users across India, Brazil, and Indonesia, with that number expected to grow. Part of its success lies in ByteDance using TikTok to bring users over to Resso. In Brazil, a button on the TikTok app can be used to redirect users to Resso to listen to the full version of a song they may like, effectively keeping ByteDance’s audience within the TikTok ecosystem.
It is unclear if TikTok Music will launch anytime soon, and if it will be a version of the Resso formula. The potential app poses a significant threat to the power of Spotify, and could have the potential to shift the entire streaming ecosystem should it come to fruition.
