TikTok could be releasing its own music streaming services soon. As reported by Business Insider, a trademark was submitted back in May called “TikTok Music,” earning a potential threat to Spotify and Apple Music.
The parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, submitted the trademark application for “TikTok Music” in November 2021 in Australia.
On May 9, 2022, the company filed and submitted the trademark application to the US Patent and Trademark Office, and the rumors started spreading. Further update, on May 13, entails that an attorney will be assigned by the office to inspect it after six months.
This potential upcoming music streaming service from ByteDance could have a mobile app allowing users to “purchase, play, share, download music, songs, albums, lyrics.”
Business Insider also reports that this app would further let the users “live stream audio and video,” in addition to “comment on music, songs, and albums” and “edit and upload photographs as the cover of playlists.”
Judging by the details so far, it seems the service is going to be different from other popular music streaming services like Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, and Youtube Music, and will have features to interact with the users and audience.
The Chinese company already owns a successful music streaming platform called Resso Music, available in selected markets, which include India, Brazil, and Indonesia. According to Sensor Tower, the app cumulatively had 42.3 million downloads from January to May 2022 on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
While tech giants file trademark applications all the time, and there is no official confirmation from the company yet, a trademark attorney at Gerben Law Firm, Josh Gerben says, “Typically a company the size of TikTok or ByteDance is only going to file trademark applications for items that they’re seriously considering.”
Josh added, “If you look back through any major company’s trademark filings, you’ll see ones that they filed that never came to fruition. But a lot of times, they do. And a lot of times, it’s something they’re seriously working on.”
The short-video platform is already surpassing Facebook for being the only other app from it to have over 3 billion downloads. On the other side, most top-charting music and curated playlists on other music streaming platforms are songs that first went viral on TikTok.
Additionally, nearly 75% of the users on the platform have said to discover new artists there. In just 2021, 175 songs trending on the platform charted later on the Billboard Hot 100.
Along with that, in the same year alone, an estimated 430 songs used as TikTok sounds got over one billion views. Spotify has been the leading music streaming service for a while now, and maybe it is about time they faced a potential competition.
Slava is a man of mystery and no-one seems to know exactly where he is at any point in time. When he isn't enjoying writing about all things audio and technical he can be found researching his next project of interest. The man never rests.