TikTok Owner to Challenge Spotify and Apple With Music Service
- ByteDance plans to target listeners in emerging markets
- Company has already secured rights from Indian record labels
Inside Beijing ByteDance headquarters in Beijing, China.
Photographer: Giulia Marchi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
ByteDance Ltd., owner of the popular video app TikTok, is developing a paid music service that will challenge industry leaders Spotify and Apple Music in emerging markets, according to people familiar with the matter.
ByteDance expects to introduce the new app as early as this fall in a handful of territories, mostly poorer countries where paid music services have yet to garner large audiences, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been announced. The company has already secured rights from T-Series and Times Music, two of India’s largest labels, according to executives with those companies.