Social behemoth Tik Tok has announced it will end its Tik Tok Music service at the end of November.
As a salve to disappointed users, Tik Tok offers a way to transfer Tik Tok playlists to other music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. (This must be done by November 28.)
“Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of track saves to playlists on partner music streaming services,” Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music Business Development, TikTok said in a statement. “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.”
There is some precedent for connecting Tik Tok to global streaming platforms, as Tik Tok connected with Apple Music (pre-Tik Tok Music) in May of last year (RAIN coverage HERE).
Nearly three years before that, Tik Tok’s interaction with musicians, and the platform’s aspiration to be musically influential, was documented with the company’s release of a music report. At that time, on 70 recognizable artists had broken on the platform, resulting in major label deals.
The seemingly symbiotic relationship with labels hasn’t always been idyllic. In January of 2024 the world’s largest music label, UMG, publicly thrashed Tik Tok and threatened to pull its catalog from Tik Tok sharing activity, accusing the social network for failing to meet UMG’s royalty terms. (RAIN HERE)
