There is still essentially just one moniker you need to be familiar with when it refers to streaming music. We have a word for it: it begins with “S” and ends with “potify”.
While Apple Music, their biggest rivals, as well as other rivals, have made tremendous strides, Spotify continues to rule the streaming throne. According to subscriber data from June evaluated by market research company MIDiA, Spotify holds about 31% of the market. Halve this figure and you will get how much Apple accounts for. To put it another way, again not Apple has managed to dethrone Spotify from its throne of streaming. Amazon Music, too? Do we actually need to discuss this?
It goes without saying that if a rival were to emerge, it ought to be a major business with substantial resources and a taste for music, like, say, TikTok. It turns out that TikTok could concur with that judgment. According to Insider, recent U.S. trademark filings indicate that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is seriously considering developing TikTok Music, an application that would let users “buy, play, share, download albums, songs, lyrics… and a heck of a lot more.”
New music can already be found on TikTok. Additionally, it promotes songs to the top of rankings like Spotify Viral 50, Billboard 100, and curated playlists on Apple Music, which helps them become more popular.
TikTok Music
Let’s straighten things up: TikTok Music is not about to completely upend the music streaming market just because a patent application was made. But that also isn’t what it means. With its Resso app, a music streaming service accessible to customers in India, Brazil, and Indonesia, ByteDance is the first player in the market. The Information stated that Resso currently has roughly 40 million subscribers dispersed equally among those markets. Not a bad beginning for a possible Spotify rival.
Furthermore, even though it just provides a 3,000-foot overview of its intentions, ByteDance’s depiction of a TikTok Music app seems to cover a lot of ground. The patent mentions a social aspect for exchanging song lyrics and music, the capability of watching videos (we are talking about TikTok, after all), and possibly our favorite nod: some form of karaoke capabilities. Even the existence of interactive media associated with entertainment, sports, fashion, and current affairs is hinted at by the corporation.
ByteDance’s possibly incipient, a pipe-dream rival may have an answer to, or even one-up, Spotify in every manner that the latter has distinguished itself in the field of music streaming, including a sizable music library and a distinctive social component. My eyebrows would indeed be raised if I were Spotify.
Is this Spoti-bye?
Although ByteDance was not the first business to consider entering the music streaming market, it may now be in the best position of all contenders. In addition to having Resso as a head start, it also possesses the social media know-how to create a music app that just might be worthwhile.
A new player entering the music streaming business is definitely advantageous for ordinary customers. If TikTok Music ever materializes, ByteDance may provide pricing that is competitive with Apple Music or Spotify in order to make it appealing. Or perhaps ByteDance will feel pressured to include features that Spotify does not. In 2019, for instance, Amazon Music unveiled the first-ever hi-fi audio service; today, both Spotify and Apple Music offer their own variations.
Nevertheless, TikTok Music is certainly a less appealing prospect for services like Spotify. What if ByteDance attracts a younger demographic that is familiar with the TikTok platform? What if TikTok Songs decides to pay musicians extra for the right to license their music, God forbid? It is all theoretical right now, but Spotify, like Netflix, is not perfect. Being able to remain at the top of the charts indefinitely could not be achieved even by the best musicians throughout history. Just like online casino rankings from, say, a year ago do not reflect the actual condition in the industry as new casinos by the link emerge and bring in novelties, appealing bonuses, the latest payment methods, etc. We can list niches this way indefinitely…
Final Thoughts
If any of that proves to be true, Spotify and Apple Music would face formidable competition. For instance, TikTok is the only app other than Facebook to have received more than 3 billion downloads worldwide and is a big help to artists’ chances of being found.
Typically, a business the scale of TikTok or ByteDance will only submit trademark applications for goods they are really considering releasing. Any large corporation that has ever filed a trademark will have ones that were never successful if you think back through their files. But frequently they do. And a significant portion of the time, they are diligently working on it.
Do you have a Spotify or Apple Music subscription? If TikTok eventually launches a music streaming service, would you be open to switching? Post your comments in the space provided below.