Photo Credit: TikTok
Long live the album: TikTok is seemingly expanding its Add to Music App feature, through which users can save music to standalone services like Spotify, to include album pre-saves.
The Add to Music App buildout was first spotted by Music Ally, and TikTok subsequently confirmed ongoing tests of a full-album pre-save option. Add to Music App itself is now approaching its one-year anniversary; late 2023 saw the tool roll out in additional markets, and TikTokers in another 163 nations gained access this past February.
Now, evidently looking to capitalize on the across-the-board availability and to underscore its marketing capabilities, TikTok is reportedly enabling users to pre-save whole albums. As laid out by the mentioned outlet, a portion of these users can already add forthcoming albums (like Rosie, which Blackpink’s Rosé is set to drop in December) to Spotify and Apple Music.
From there, added full-length projects will automatically appear in one’s library upon release, per the available description. Though album pre-saves’ precise promotional effectiveness remains to be seen for some acts, certain well-established artists are presumably poised to enjoy commercial bumps from the tool.
Of course, that’s assuming album pre-saves ultimately receive a full-scale release. And that’s also assuming the popular video-sharing app isn’t forced to cease operating in the world’s biggest music market and economy this coming January.
As things stand, the January 19th sale-or-shutdown deadline established under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is still in place.
Meanwhile, the controversial platform is grappling with several other operational obstacles. Keeping the focus on litigation and regulatory scrutiny for a moment, closer to October’s beginning, over a dozen U.S. states sued the ByteDance-owned app over its alleged “perilous effects on children.”
Today, Reuters reported that Brazil’s Collective Defense Institute had filed a pair of lawsuits, alleging data-protection shortcomings and undisclosed mental-health risks for minors who use the app, against TikTok. Those complaints are reportedly seeking nearly $530 million in damages.
And on the licensing side, amid an abrupt TikTok-Merlin split, far-reaching questions remain about the platform’s relationship with the indie music community moving forward.
While time will tell how these challenges play out for TikTok, the short-form giant is hardly without competition at present. This growing list includes not only prominent rivals like YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram’s Reels, but lesser-discussed players such as a revamped Triller, Loops, and Connyct, to name a few.
