In May 2022, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance went to the US patent and trademark office to file a trademark for a service named ‘TikTok Music’. The filing documents suggests use of music streaming applications allowing users to purchase and play music.
TikTok is widely used for short-form video content and is already famed for promoting music from all over the world and a range of genres. Over the span of its operations, the application has been the sole reason behind hundreds of music hits. Reports also prove that once a song gets used in TikTok challenges and viral videos, it is bound to get an increased number of views on both YouTube, Spotify, and other music streaming applications around the world.
In a report, TikTok has shown that amongst the 175 songs that trend on their application ultimately made their way into the top hundred charts. With strong influence, TikTok is often times used by music producers, singers, and rappers to market their songs and some even allocate huge budgets for promotional activities on TikTok.
Considering TikTok’s favourable impact on the music and streaming industry, it is only plausible for them to build a service of their own. However, the social giant, for now, has no streaming service for the western markets, and applications like Spotify and Apple Music that own the majority streaming market. ByteDance, on the otherhand, has a comparatively smaller music streaming platform named ‘Resso’, which has been operational in three countries including India, Brazil and Indonesia.
Offering a TikTok-like interface, Resso allows its users to skip songs through a simple swipe feature. The application has recorded massive numbers, with over 42.3 million downloads in 2022 alone. This adds up the total Resso users to somewhere around 184 million, making it have a 19% year-over-year growth.
According to different sources, TikTok is now looking forward to expanding ‘Resso’ under the name of ‘TikTok Music’ into bigger markets such as the UK and Australia. Now, this is something that big music streamers in the US might be worried about since TikTok with its vast social influence and capital can easily grasp a good chunk of the US streaming market.
Now we’re eager to see how soon TikTok makes it happen and when we can enjoy the service in Pakistan (and we’re hoping it’s sooner than later).
