Bytedance, the Chinese company that owns short-form video platform TikTok, may be moving forward with launching its own streaming music service. Financial Times reported that Bytedance is working on an app that would offer the typical on-demand audio experience. It will also mimic TikTok, with a collection of short, searchable video clips that users can sync to songs and then share with friends. The service could debut as early as December in markets including Brazil, India, and Indonesia. It would launch later in the United States.
The company still has progress to make on this project. Bytedance is allegedly still in discussions for licensing the catalogs from Sony, Warner, and Universal for the upcoming service. Its social TikTok platform has drawn critique from the majors for allowing its users to play clips of licensed audio in their video creations without paying the typical fees charged to streaming services. The app has a global audience of more than 1 billion, but the streaming audio landscape is still a crowded and competitive one for a new party to enter. Bytedance’s service is expected to cost less than the standard $10 a month audio streaming subscription, which could give the company an edge.