TikTok launches new music streaming service ‘TikTok Music’ in Brazil, Indonesia

After dominating the social media space, short-video platform TikTok is now getting ready to rival Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon Music with its new premium music-streaming service TikTok Music.

The company announced on Thursday that it has launched the new service in Brazil and Indonesia, where ByteDance’s existing music streaming service Resso will be discontinued on September 5, 2023.

In a blog post, the company said that users will be able to sync their TikTok and TikTok Music accounts to get started using the app. After that, they will be able to play full versions of hit TikTok songs, get new music recommendations, import their own music library, download tracks to listen to them offline, engage with other users on the platform, view lyrics in real time, create collaborative playlists with friends, find songs by searching their lyrics, and discover the songs playing around them via its Shazam-like feature.

Also Read: The 9 Best Music Streaming Apps

As reported by TechCrunch, the service will offer catalogs of major record companies, such as Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music. When it comes to its pricing, it will cost $3.49 a month in Brazil, and $3.25 for iOS users in Indonesia. Android users in the country, on the other hand, will need to pay $2.96 per month during the first year, and $3.25 after that. It’s worth noting that TikTok Music doesn’t offer a free membership, however, users will be able to try the service for a month for free.

“We are pleased to introduce TikTok Music, a new kind of service that combines the power of music discovery on TikTok with a best-in-class streaming service,’’ said Ole Obermann, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Business Development, in a statement. ‘’TikTok Music will make it easy for people in Indonesia and Brazil to save, download and share their favourite viral tracks from TikTok. We are excited about the opportunities TikTok Music presents for both music fans and artists, and the great potential it has for driving significant value to the music industry.”

Meanwhile, although ByteDance filed a trademark application for the service with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in May 2022, the company has yet to share a word about TikTok Music’s expansion to the United States.

“We are excited about the opportunities for TikTok Music, for music fans, artists and the industry, but we don’t have any more news to share on future plans,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.

In case you don’t know, Meta launched its new Twitter-like microblogging app Threads this week, which managed to garner millions of sign-ups within hours, largely thanks to users’ ability to create accounts in seconds by using their Instagram credentials. While such an integration between TikTok and TikTok Music could help the service see a similar trend in its downloads, since it currently doesn’t have a free plan and that its prices are comparable to its rivals, its future remains unpredictable for now.