• by Colin Kirkland , September 24, 2024

After launching TikTok Music in select countries last year, ByteDance is officially shuttering the music streaming platform, finalizing any possible competition with Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

According to TikTok's parent company, subscribers can continue to use the service through the end of November.

“We are sorry to inform you that TikTok Music will be closing on 28 November 2024,” a notice on TikTok Music's website reads.

The subscription-only music streaming service -- which forged deals with major record companies like Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music -- allowed users in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico to play viral TikTok songs in full, discover personalized music recommendations, access lyrics in real time, create collaborative playlists with friends, import music libraries and find songs via a lyrics search.

The service -- born out of ByteDance's music streaming app Resso -- could be synced with users' regular TikTok accounts, doubling down on TikTok's global reputation for music discovery. Last year, the company launched its own weekly Billboard Top 50 Chart for the most popular songs being played, shared and used in creator videos on the app, and has also ventured into the live music events, hosting its own festival, “In the Mix,” and partnering with tickets.com, Ticketmaster, and AXS.

In other words, the company will continue to partner with music streaming services rather than try and compete with them directly. This strategy is underway, with TikTok integrating an “Add to Music” feature on its platform that lets users save songs they hear on their main video feed directly to their preferred music streaming app.