Given the interconnectedness of music discovery with TikTok, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the company launched its own music streaming app. Well, patent applications discovered by Insider suggest TikTok is working on that.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for “TikTok Music” in May. According to the application, the service would allow users to purchase, play, share and download music. It would also allow users to create, share and recommend playlists, comment on music and live stream audio and video. ByteDance already filed for a “TikTok Music” trademark in Australia last November.
ByteDance already has experience with streaming music. in 2020, ByteDance launched a music streaming app, Resso, in India, Brazil and Indonesia. Resso has some of the same features described in the “TikTok Music” archive, such as the ability to create playlists, share songs on social media, and interact with the app’s community.
ByteDance even uses TikTok to bring existing users to Resso. According to a report of The informationIn Brazil, the TikTok app comes with a button that redirects users to Resso so they can listen to the full version of a song they’re interested in, a move that keeps users within the ByteDance ecosystem.
The information also reports that As of November 2021, Resso had more than 40 million monthly users in India, Brazil and Indonesia, a number that is likely to grow. Earlier this year, a report was published by Insider revealed Resso’s monthly active users grew by 304 percent between January 2021 and January 2022 in India alone, as opposed to Spotify’s 38 percent growth in the country over the same period.
It’s unclear if ByteDance plans to develop a music streaming app based on the Resso framework, or if it’s coming up with something else. Just as TikTok had a profound impact on the way social media sites work, it’s possible that a music streaming app with TikTok links could change the music streaming industry, forcing services to adapt.