The company behind TikTok is planning to challenge Spotify and Apple Music soon
The world's top two music streaming services have seen their market dominance challenged by many platforms from many different companies in recent years, ranging from Google's Play Music and YouTube Music to Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, and perhaps most notably, Amazon Music Unlimited. But the greatest threat to the fast-rising subscriber numbers of Spotify and Apple Music might eventually come from China rather than the US, France, or Norway.
A little Chinese tech outfit called ByteDance is reportedly planning to release its very own Spotify alternative "as soon as next month", setting its initial sights on markets like India, Indonesia, and Brazil before expanding to the US, which should happen fairly quickly after this global December debut.
If the company's name doesn't ring any bell, that might be because you've never been curious to find out who's behind the immensely successful TikTok app. The answer is obviously ByteDance, which was founded back in 2012, launching TikTok just five years later and rapidly striking gold. The social media platform managed to break the 1 billion overall download barrier on Android and iOS early this year, jumping to 1.5 billion last week and helping its developer tout a billion monthly active users across all its services last summer.
Probably the most impressive thing about those numbers is that they barely include any Chinese users. Instead, TikTok is hugely popular stateside, so naturally, ByteDance's intention to branch out into the thriving music streaming industry is being welcomed with open arms by profit-hungry executives at major Western labels like Universal, Sony, and Warner Music.
These are all likely to offer access to their extensive libraries, even though ByteDance is reportedly under investigation for potentially threatening America's national security with its humorous short video clips. Speaking of, rumor has it the unnamed music-centric TikTok spin-off will also include a "library of short video clips that listeners could search through and synch to songs as they listen."
Perhaps more importantly, ByteDance is aiming to price this service lower than the $9.99 a month charged from individual Apple Music and Spotify subscribers, which could well rock the market when taking TikTok's huge audience into consideration as well.
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