ByteDance is shutting down TikTok Music globally | TechCrunch
ByteDance said it is shuttering its music streaming service, TikTok Music, in November.
“We are sorry to inform you that TikTok Music will be closing on 28 November 2024,” a notice on TikTok Music’s website reads. The service was available in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore and Mexico.
Subscribers can continue to use the service until November 28, after which renewals will be automatically canceled, the notice said. Users who want to transfer their playlists to other streaming services would need to do so by October 28, and refund requests would need to be submitted by November 28.
“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,” Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music Business Development, TikTok said in a statement.
TikTok said that it will continue partnering with music streaming services rather than competing with them. In February, the company launched “Add to Music” feature on TikTok that lets users add tracks directly to a playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Spotify.
TikTok Music was rooted in a ByteDance product called Resso, which was first launched in India and Indonesia in 2019 and later expanded to Brazil.
In 2023, ByteDance rebranded Resso to TikTok Music in Brazil and Indonesia, and soon after expanded it to Singapore, Australia and Mexico. Resso was banned early this year in India.
TikTok has become a popular way for people to discover music, and serves as a launchpad for artists, driving their streams. TikTok has a significant impact on increasing value for artists via streaming and fueling music discovery, per a study conducted by TikTok and entertainment data research firm Lumiate.
Bytedance, which also owns a music distribution platform called SoundOn, likely wanted to bank on TikTok’s popularity to drive streams within its own ecosystem, but the service didn’t expand internationally beyond a few markets.
TikTok also has had a shaky relationship with the music industry lately. Earlier this year, Universal Music Group pulled its music catalog out of the service after disagreements over royalties. In response, TikTok called out UMG for “false narrative nad rhetoric.” In March, both parties called a truce and signed a new deal.
Separately, TikTok is fighting a case against a bill that would possibly lead to the short video app being banned in the U.S. This might have hampered ByteDance’s plans of expanding TikTok Music to markets like the U.S.
The story has been updated with ByteDance’s response.
