TikTok Music, a digital streaming platform (DSP) helmed by the popular namesake social media app, will shut down just 14 months after its launch.
TikTok Music, which was first launched by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in Indonesia and Brazil in July 2023 and later in Australia, Singapore, and Mexico, will cease operations in all regions on November 28, according to an announcement posted to its website today.
Subscribers will be able to use the service until that date, after which renewals will automatically be canceled. Account holders who want to transfer their playlists to other DSPs must do so by October 28, and refund requests must be submitted by November 28, according to the announcement.
“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,” Ole Obermann, ByteDance’s global head of music business development, said in a statement.
In the absence of its own competing DSP, the company said it will continue to work with other streaming platforms, with an example being TikTok’s “Add to Music” feature, which was rolled out in February 2023 and allows users to add songs discovered on the social media app directly to their playlists on Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Spotify.
Upon its launch, ByteDance said TikTok Music, a paid-only subscription service, would offer users a “full catalog of music from thousands of labels and artists, uninterrupted ad-free listening, and a download function for listening offline” through a landmark licensing agreement with all three major record companies: Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.
Six months later, Universal Music removed its entire catalog of music from TikTok after the label accused the social media giant of trying to “bully” and “intimidate” them into accepting a licensing deal “worth less than the previous deal” in an open letter. The dispute was resolved and a new agreement was reached in May 2024.
TikTok Music served as a replacement for ByteDance’s original DSP, Resso, which was banned in India in January.
For more information on the TikTok Music shutdown, visit music.tiktok.com.
Featured image from Unplash.com.
