TikTok Music coming soon: ByteDance working on music app to compete with Spotify

According to the trademark filing, TikTok Music would allow users to users to buy, play, share, and download music. The functionalities are likely to be similar to Resso, a music streaming app launched by ByteDance in 2020, which remains available in India despite TikTok’s ban in the country. TikTok Music would create, share and recommend playlists, allow users to comment, provide podcasts, radio broadcast content, and live stream audio and video.

The upcoming TikTok Music app is seemingly banking on user behaviour where it is common for a user to watch a TikTok video, hear few seconds of a song and then look up the full song. Resso has been employing this feature in Brazil, providing them a redirect button from a TikTok video to directly reach out to the full version of that song. This way, ByteDance looks to gain an edge over its contemporaries and promote in-house apps.

Resso has grown significantly in the past one year not just in India but in Brazil and Indonesia as well. A report from the Information also revealed an ever-growing user base of 40 million monthly active users across these three nations. In India alone, Resso has grown tremendously with a growth of 304 percent of its monthly active users between January 2021 to January 2022 as compared to Spotify’s 38 percent in the same time gap.

Resso – TikTok Music’s predecessor

Resso offers a scrolling interface similar to TikTok and shows recommendations based on the user’s browsing history. Spotify and YouTube Music offers similar interface. Resso also allows users to view lyrics, download offline music, and let users search for songs playing in the background. It also gives access to delete users’ accounts but is only available in specific markets like India and Brazil.