Spotify and Apple Music may soon have to compete with ‘TikTok music’ as the social media giant makes plans to enter the music streaming space.
In May, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance filed a trademark application for “TikTok Music,” implying that the Chinese company could be preparing to compete with Spotify and Apple Music.
If the application is approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office, the trademark phrase would apply to a mobile and tablet app where users can “buy, play, share, download music, songs, albums, lyrics” and “create, recommend, share his/her playlists’.
Sounds a lot like what music streaming giants Spotify and Apple Music are doing, right?
Last November, ByteDance filed a similar application in Australia as: reported by Insider. The latest update, on May 13, says the office will appoint a lawyer to investigate within six months.
TikTok Music can get an edge over existing music streaming services by adding a social element to it.
The application mentions the ability to “comment music, songs, and albums,” a feature that doesn’t yet exist on Apple Music or Spotify.
A number of users are already using TikTok to discover new music, with the trends going viral on a weekly basis. Both Spotify and Apple Music’s best curated playlists feature songs that first went viral on TikTok.
Through trending dances and sounds, the app turned songs into hits like “Say So” by Doja Cat. It has also helped bring older songs back to the top of the charts, such as Kate Bush’s’Run that HilI’.
In 2021 alone, about 430 songs surpassed 1 billion video views when used as TikTok sounds, and more than 175 trending songs on TikTok later entered the Billboard Hot 100, according to a TikTok report.
TikTok has already frightened its social media rivals, such as Meta’s Instagram, which has desperately tried to imitate the video-sharing app in short form.
In just a few days, Instagram took a turn for the worse in rolling out new TikTok-like features in its app after a massive response from users.
Kim KardashianKylie Jenner and Chrissy Teigen were among the celebrities who lashed out on Instagram about the proposed changes.
Among the new features was an increase in the number of video content shown to users and “recommendations” criticized for blocking messages from friends.
The shift to more video content was an obvious move to try and reclaim people who transitioned to TikTok.
Earlier in the week, the app’s boss, Adam Mosseri, posted several videos on Twitter explaining the changes and saying he wanted to “continue to support photos.”
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