TikTok‘s short-lived run as a standalone music service is coming to an end. ByteDance has announced that it will discontinue the TikTok Music app, which never even became available in the United States.
Visitors to the TikTok Music website are now greeted by a landing page that announces the news. “We are sorry to inform you that TikTok Music will be closing on 28 November 2024,” it reads. “We would like to thank you for all of your support, and we hope you enjoyed the music.”
ByteDance originally devised TikTok Music as the successor to Resso, another music service owned by the Beijing-based tech company. The TikTok Music name started to come into use in 2022, and by the next year, the service had rolled out in five countries across the globe — though the U.S. was noticeably absent from that list.
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TikTok Music looked to harness TikTok’s status as a driver of culture by providing immediate access to the songs that accompany the platform’s viral videos. TikTok threw its weight behind that effort by putting on several concerts, including a star-studded festival in Arizona and a Gwen Stefani performance at its Super Bowl tailgate.
But relationships between digital platforms and record labels can be thorny, as TikTok found out during its prolonged dispute with Universal Music Group. In August 2023, layoffs hit TikTok’s music department, with the app citing “redundancy” as a factor behind the decision.
Ultimately, the rationale behind the TikTok Music shutdown is simple: Rather than sinking resources into a first-party streaming service, TikTok would rather direct listeners to existing apps through tools like its Add to Music App button. Instead of competing with YouTube, Apple, and Spotify’s audio services, TikTok is working together with them.
“Our Add to Music App feature has already enabled hundreds of millions of track saves to playlists on partner music streaming services,” said TikTok Global Head of Music Business Development Ole Obermann in a statement. “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.”
Even though the demise of TikTok Music is disappointing (especially for those of us in the U.S. who never got to try it out), TikTok will remain relevant in the music world, especially among pop star fanbases. But if you want to sample more tunes from the hitmakers the platform has spawned, you’ll have to do that in a different app once November 28 rolls around.
