The ByteDance logo is seen at ByteDance headquarters on July 13, 2019 in Beijing, China.
Bits of ByteDance’s Streaming Plans Emerge
Bits of detail surrounding ByteDance's planned music streaming service are trickling in, with a new report outlining some specific ways the TikTok owner plans on incorporating social media into the app.
Billboard previously reported that the service will "heavily incorporate social networking features." According to the Financial Times, one of those features will channel TikTok and include a library of short, vertical videos that users could pair with licensed music and then share with "friends."
On-demand music on the app will largely hail from major label sources, and FT suggests the Chinese tech giant remains in talks with Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music on hashing out those terms. Sources said the new service will cost less than competitors, including Spotify and Apple Music, and that it could launch by year’s end in markets like India, Indonesia and Brazil ahead of a U.S. rollout.
As previously reported in Billboard, ByteDance has been demoing the social-heavy service with a select group of insiders.
According to estimates from Sensor Tower, ByteDance’s wildly popular TikTok app recently surpassed 1.5 billion downloads in Apple and Google’s respective app stores. The data found that users in India accounted for nearly a third of those unique installs (466.8 million), with China (173.2 million) and the U.S. (123.8) rounding out the top 3.
ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.