Not content with dominating the short-form video space, TikTok has taken its first steps into the music streaming territory dominated by Spotify, Apple, and Amazon.
The subscription-only service started off in just two markets — Brazil and Indonesia — but is now available via invite in Australia, Mexico, and Singapore, suggesting an aggressive rollout is coming.
But will that include the UK? And, if so, how much will it cost?
What is TikTok Music?
TikTok Music shares much of the same functionality as the other big streamers such as Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify, and Apple Music.
It lets you stream albums and songs from artists represented by the likes of Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music. Users can make and share collaborative playlists and save songs for offline listening.
But that wouldn’t be too groundbreaking on its own and TikTok Music has some features to appeal to the original app’s userbase.
For starters, it will provide personalised music recommendations accessible by that familiar vertical scrolling interface. This may sound appealing given how good the TikTok algorithm is at surfacing videos to match a user’s interests.
Speaking of those videos, it will also let you play full versions of the songs that accompany TikTok’s most viral moments. It will also let you search by lyrics (which can appear alongside songs in real-time.) It even has a Shazam-style feature for identifying tracks.
Perhaps aware of the challenge of attracting users of other services, TikTok Music lets you import your music library, too.
Will TikTok Music come to the UK?
For now, TikTok Music is only usable in five markets. It’s available to all in Brazil and Indonesia, where it directly replaced parent company ByteDance’s Resso app, which shut down last September in both. And it’s now available as a closed beta in Australia, Mexico, and Singapore.
Indeed, a recent press release from TikTok said that it has “plans for further growth in other markets”, albeit without more specifics or a timeline.
This seems to be the early stages of a global rollout, then, but it could take some time. Resso launched in Brazil and Indonesia back in 2020, so it’s not been a speedy transition to the world of streaming music for ByteDance, even if things are picking up pace with the closed beta in new territories.
How much will TikTok Music cost if it comes to the UK?
If it does come to the UK, expect TikTok Music’s pricing to be in the same ballpark as Apple Music and Spotify.
While it costs just R$19.90 (~£3.27) a month in Brazil, that’s the same price as both Spotify and Apple Music in the country. And the prices in Australia (AUD11.99), Mexico (MXN$115), and Singapore (S$9.90) all match the local prices for Spotify (right down to the options for students and families).
In other words, should TikTok Music launch in Britain, it’s virtually certain to match Spotify Premium’s £9.99 per month fee. Unless TikTok is finding that doing so elsewhere is a barrier to taking users away from its rivals.
