ByteDance to shut down TikTok Music globally by November

ByteDance has announced that its music streaming service, TikTok Music, will be discontinued globally, marking the end of its short-lived attempt to rival platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. According to an official notice on the TikTok Music website, the service will be shut down on November 28, 2024. The service, which had been available in markets such as Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico, is preparing to wind down operations after its relatively brief run.

Despite its promising start, ByteDance has remained silent on the reasons for the shutdown, leaving industry observers to speculate. TikTok Music was an evolution of ByteDance’s earlier music platform, Resso, which first launched in India and Indonesia in 2019. Resso later expanded to Brazil before being rebranded as TikTok Music in 2023. At that time, ByteDance transitioned its Resso user base in Indonesia and Brazil to the TikTok Music platform. Following this shift, the service was introduced to new markets, including Singapore, Australia, and Mexico. However, its journey faced challenges, including the ban of Resso in India earlier this year due to government orders.

TikTok itself has become a major player in music discovery, often serving as a launchpad for artists and songs to gain viral popularity in a matter of days. A study conducted by TikTok and the research firm Lumiate highlighted the platform’s power in driving streaming numbers and increasing value for artists. With such influence, ByteDance likely hoped to leverage TikTok Music as a way to keep streams within its own ecosystem and capitalize on the growing demand for music streaming.

However, despite these ambitions, the experiment with TikTok Music seems to have fallen short of expectations. ByteDance’s music ventures also faced hurdles earlier this year when Universal Music Group (UMG) pulled its catalog from TikTok, citing royalty disputes. Although the two parties eventually resolved their differences and signed a new deal, the episode underscored TikTok’s shaky relationship with the music industry, which may have contributed to TikTok Music’s downfall.

The shutdown of TikTok Music raises questions about ByteDance’s future in the music industry and whether the company will pursue new ways to integrate music with its wildly popular TikTok platform. Meanwhile, ByteDance continues to operate SoundOn, its music distribution platform, though it remains to be seen how the company will navigate the complex landscape of digital music going forward.