TikTok Music is officially set to shut down on November 28th. Photo Credit: Rubaitul Azad
R.I.P., TikTok Music: The namesake video-sharing giant’s standalone music streaming platform is now set to shut down at November’s end.
ByteDance-owned TikTok confirmed its streaming service’s cessation of operations via a statement as well as an update on the appropriate website. The latter underscores the permanent nature of the move; users’ “account information and personal data will be automatically deleted following the closure of TikTok Music,” per the text.
Said users have until October 28th to transfer their playlists to different services and until November 28th to request refunds for any unused subscription time. Absent from TikTok Music’s website is any mention of the precise cause(s) of the shutdown. Similarly, TikTok global head of music business development Ole Obermann in a statement confirmed the cessation of operations but didn’t provide much insight into the decision.
“Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of track saves to playlists on partner music streaming services,” relayed the longtime ByteDance/TikTok exec Obermann. “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.”
However, it’s possible that licensing problems (or at least friction) of some sort contributed to the decision. TikTok set its standalone streaming ambitions in motion in 2022, and even back then, reports suggested the majors were concerned with the service’s monetization potential.
Nevertheless, the offering replaced ByteDance’s existing music app, Resso, in Brazil and Indonesia during the summer of 2023 – complete with smaller monthly costs than Spotify, which currently charges the equivalent of about $4 and $3.60, respectively, for Individual in the nations.
Shortly thereafter, the platform reached Australia, Mexico, and Singapore. In retrospect, the layoff round that hit the division responsible for TikTok Music the following month, August of 2023, wasn’t an encouraging sign for the service.
Closer to the present, it was only earlier in 2024 that TikTok proper was entangled in a licensing dust-up with Universal Music. The since-resolved dispute, in many ways a distant memory now, saw UMG pull its catalog from TikTok for a time.
In any event, notwithstanding the possibility of licensing hang-ups behind the scenes, TikTok Music’s exit from the streaming arena might simply reflect weak adoption rates and the considerable resources required to maintain the non-core product. Of course, competition is stiff from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud, and others yet.
Moreover, TikTok is still spearheading music expansions (the app last month welcomed a Bandcamp channel) and has far bigger fish to fry when it comes to fending off a quick-approaching ban in the world’s largest economy.
