TikTok has launched a music streaming service starting in Brazil and Indonesia after months of speculation over the service.
The company announced on Thursday the latest offering in the two countries, which is currently a premium-only service. The service will be available on desktop versions and mobile apps.
Transition from old to new
According to the company, its existing music streaming platform Resso, will cease to be available in the two countries effective September 5, but subscribers can transfer their accounts to the new platform. This comes two months after it shut down its free tier.
However, Resso will remain available in India after September 5.
Parent company ByteDance announced that the service would be premium only when the transition started in May.
With TikTok Music, subscribers will not only be able to sync their accounts but will also download and share tracks on the new platform.
“We are pleased to introduce TikTok Music, a new kind of service that combines the power of music discovery on TikTok with a best-in-class streaming service. TikTok Music will make it easy for people in Indonesia and Brazil to save, download and share their favourite viral tracks from TikTok,” said TikTok global head of music business development Ole Obermann in a statement.
“We are excited about the opportunities TikTok Music presents for both music fans and artists, and the great potential it has for driving significant value to the music industry,” he added.
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Why the two countries
The new service is expected to launch in other countries soon, although there is no clear timeline yet. The company has already tested the Brazil and Indonesia markets with Resso creating scope for the launch of TikTok Music in the two countries.
It is estimated that Brazil is TikTok’s third biggest market which accounts for over 84 million users, according to Datareportal.
The estimates are based on April 2023 advertising audience figures published in the company’s self-service tools.
Indonesia is reported to be its second-largest market with about 113 million active subscribers.
Long overdue process
According to Variety, the move was long overdue and now a significant development for the company given it has been “a major source of music discovery for several years.”
As with Resso, subscribers on TikTok Music will be able to listen to music offline as well as transfer files from other music streaming services like Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify.
Subscription in Brazil is pegged at $3.49 a month while in Indonesia subscribers will pay 49 000 rupiah or $3.25 for iOS and 44 900 rupiah for Android users during the first year.
According to a report by Musically, this means TikTok Music will be cheaper than Spotify in both countries. It will be $3 cheaper in Brazil and 5 990 rupiahs cheaper in Indonesia at the price of 49,000 rupiahs.
Anything new?
Apart from enabling users to sync their TikTok accounts, TikTok Music has added a discovery feature that is solely for full versions of songs that have gone viral on TikTok.
Another advantage over Resso is that the Sony Music catalogue will be available on the platform. Sony pulled out of Resso in September last year.
The Sony catalogue is now scheduled to return to the Resso app effective July 6, reflective of parent company ByteDance’s work “behind the scenes” in building the music streaming service and its expansion.
Other major music labels on board TikTok Music are Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Indie.
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