It was widely seen as a potential ‘Spotify killer’ – a subscription streaming music platform from TikTok, the world’s largest short-form video service.
But today (September 24), TikTok has confirmed it will be closing down TikTok Music worldwide on November 28.
That will mean the end of a TikTok Music service in the five regions in which the app is currently live: Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore and Mexico.
Why? TikTok says it will now be focusing its resources on its ‘Add To Music App’ feature, which enables TikTok users to save music tracks they discover on the video platform to playlists on their preferred music audio streaming service.
Sources within TikTok suggest that the closure of TikTok Music has partly been informed by the company’s strategy of partnering with external music streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, to drive consumption on these platforms rather than directly competing with them.
In a statement, Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music Business Development, TikTok, told MBW: “Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of track saves to playlists on partner music streaming services.
“We will be closing TikTok Music at the end of November in order to focus on our goal of furthering TikTok’s role in driving even greater music listening and value on music streaming services, for the benefit of artists, songwriters and the industry.”
TikTok Music officially launched in Indonesia and Brazil last summer, licensed by all three major music companies. The app succeeded ByteDance‘s Resso, a long-running music subscription platform, in these territories.
In October last year, the TikTok Music app launched in Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. However, it arrived without Universal Music‘s recorded music catalog – seemingly a precursor to a licensing fallout between UMG and TikTok, which has since been resolved.
TikTok’s ‘Add To Music App’ feature has so far partnered with Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon; TikTok users in over 180 countries have access to the service.
Insiders at TikTok suggest the company is currently in discussions with other music streaming subscription platforms about partnering on ‘Add to Music App’.
Last week, highlighting its power to drive consumption on third-party streaming platforms, TikTok released a telling stat: according to the ByteDance company, more than a quarter (27%) of the Top 100 singles in Germany last year went viral on TikTok before becoming a hit on the German singles chart.Music Business Worldwide