With the rollout of its own competing service, the Chinese firm behind the popular TikTok video app is set to rival players such as Apple and Spotify in the music streaming market. ByteDance is in discussions with the biggest record companies around the world for global licensing deals to put their songs on a new music subscription offering, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources.
Music executives are reportedly keen to make money from TikTok, which comes at no cost to use. They are said to see a new app from the company as a welcome entrant to the market for music streaming in which firms with the inclusion of Spotify, Amazon, and Apple provide a similar music catalog. The move, according to the report, would have ByteDance compete head-on with industry leaders Tencent, Spotify, and Apple in the paid music market.
Beyond on-demand music, the planned ByteDance streaming app would come with a short video clip library that listeners could browse and synch to tunes as they listen per unnamed sources in the report. Users could pass those clips along to their friends. The music app from the company has not received a name yet, and pricing is not yet known. It is expected per the report to come at a cost that is under the $10 a month that Apple, Spotify and others charge in the U.S..
The news comes as Spotify Technology SA came out ahead of Q3 revenue expectations and posted a surprise profit as it brought on more premium service subscribers than expected. It had reportedly “outstripped” Apple Music in the race to dominate music streaming around the globe, with its number of premium subscribers had grown by 26 million the past year to reach 113 million at the close of September.
Spotify rolled out its offering more than a decade ago and has reportedly had the ability to overcome the resistance of some music artists as well as large record labels to help change how people consume music.