If you live in the U.S., you might not know that TikTok had its own music streaming service, created to take the fight directly to Spotify and Apple Music. Called, imaginatively, "TikTok Music", the service was available in a range of different locales including Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, and Brazil, launching in 2023.
Designed to work alongside the main TikTok app, and with music publisher deals under its belt, TikTok Music was going to be TikTok's answer to rival music streaming services in an effort to create a more encapsulating experience that would unite its social media app with the music that users dance to. You'll notice, however, it's all in the past tense — because it didn't work.
TikTok Music is closing down in November, so that the company can focus on interoperability between TikTok and other streaming services.
TikTok has some problems
In order to help users migrate all of their playlists and other data from TikTok music to other streaming services, the firm has a built a help page so that you can learn how. It states: "We are sorry to inform you that TikTok Music will be closing on 28 November 2024." So, users have a few weeks to get their affairs in order before finally saying farewell to the fledgling streamer.
TikTok Music was not free of issues over its short life. It got in trouble with music labels over the amount of money it was paying artists featured on the service, and how it would protect the rights of artists in the ever-present onslaught of AI content generation and learning AI models.
Yahoo Finance further points out a case that saw music from the likes of Taylor Swift, Drake, and other massive artists pulled from the service for a number of months, only being settled and sorted in May of this year. Those are user-winning artists in the long run, and if you're struggling to keep them on board, your music service isn't going to be long for this world.
Then there's TikTok's ongoing issues with an upcoming potential ban in the US, set to appear in court early next year. As much success as the dancing app has seen over the years, I'm not sure I'd like to be TikTok right now.
