Considering how much music discovery is tied to TikTok, it wouldn’t be that surprising if the company were to launch its own music streaming app. However, patent documents discovered by Insider suggest that TikTok is only working on it.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for “TikTok Music” in May. According to the file, the service would allow users to buy, play, share and download music. It would also allow users to create, share, and promote playlists, commenting on music, as well as extensive audio and video. ByteDance has applied for the “TikTok Music” trademark in Australia last November.
ByteDance already has experience with music streaming. In 2020, ByteDance launched a music streaming app, Resso, in India, Brazil and Indonesia. Resso has other features described in “TikTok Music”, such as the ability to create playlists, share songs on social media, and interact with the app’s community.
ByteDance even uses TikTok to bring existing users to Resso. According to a report from The Information, the TikTok app in Brazil comes with a button that takes users back to Resso to listen to the full version of their favorite song, a move that helps keep users in the environment. ByteDance.
News also reported that Resso had more than 40 million monthly users across India, Brazil and Indonesia as of November 2021, a number likely to grow. Earlier this year, a report from Insider revealed that Resso’s monthly active users grew by 304 percent between January 2021 to January 2022 in India alone, in contrast to Spotify’s 38 percent growth in the country over the period the same.
It’s unclear whether ByteDance plans to develop a music streaming app based on Resso’s design, or whether it will come up with something entirely different. As TikTok has had a huge impact on the way social media works, it’s possible that a music streaming app with ties to TikTok could revolutionize the music streaming industry, forcing services to adapt.
