TikTok, a global short-form video service has confirmed it will close down its music streaming platform, TikTok Music, worldwide on November 28.
The TikTok Music service is currently in only five countries; Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. This means that the service will end in these countries.
According to reports from musicbusinessworldwide.com, the move is to allow TikTok focus its resources on its ‘Add To Music App’ feature, which enables TikTok users to save music tracks they discover on the video platform to playlists on their preferred music audio streaming service.
In a statement, Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music Business Development, TikTok, told MBW: “Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of tracks saves to playlists on partner music streaming services.
“We will be closing TikTok Music at the end of November in order to focus on our goal of furthering TikTok’s role in driving even greater music listening and value on music streaming services, for the benefit of artists, songwriters and the industry.”
TikTok Music was officially launched in Indonesia and Brazil last summer and was licensed by all three major music companies.
The app was introduced in these regions as a successor to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance’s Resso, a long-running music platform.
In October last year, the app was also launched in Australia, Singapore and Mexico but without Universal Music’s recorded music catalog due to a licensing fallout between the two parties. TikTok has resolved its issues with UMG.
TikTok’s ‘Add To Music App’ feature has so far partnered with Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon; TikTok users in over 180 countries have access to the service.
TikTok suggests the company is currently in discussions with other music streaming subscription platforms about partnering on ‘Add to Music App’.
Last week, highlighting its power to drive consumption on third-party streaming platforms, TikTok released a telling stat: according to the ByteDance company, more than a quarter (27%) of the Top 100 singles in Germany last year went viral on TikTok before becoming a hit on the German singles chart.
According to the recently released Reuters Institute Digital News report 2023 survey, Kenya is leads in world TikTok usage.
The report shows that the East African nation concentrates 54% of TikTok usage for any purpose and 29% for news. Thailand comes in second place as South Africa holds the third spot with 50% for general use and 22% for news.
The report also shows that TikTok is gaining ground in the distribution of news particularly among younger audiences, while Facebook, which has long held the top spot, is losing ground.
Nevertheless, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat users tend to pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than media companies when it comes to News topics, in sharp contrast to Facebook and Twitter users. These legacy social networks still attract the most attention and lead conversations.
Evidence supports that audiences tend to selectively avoid stories that they deem too depressing or anxiety-provoking in an effort to protect their mental health.
In terms of growth, TikTok remains the fastest-growing social network, with 44% of users using it, and is popular among 18-24-year-olds.
Additional Sources: Reuters
