Billboard is the latest publication to speculate about TikTok parent company Bytedance’s plans to launch a fully-fledged music-streaming service, following the South China Morning Post in April and Bloomberg in May.
“The music service, which ByteDance has been demoing for a select group of insiders, has been called ‘a whole new take on streaming’ by an industry source who has seen it and will heavily incorporate social networking features, according to sources,” claimed Billboard yesterday. Its report suggests that the launch of the new service may nudge back into 2020, with negotiations – which are happening alongside existing licensing talks for TikTok – still going on.
May’s Bloomberg report had claimed that Bytedance will be focusing on ‘emerging markets’ with its streaming service, with India seemingly high on its list, judging by the claim that Indian music firms T-Series and Times Music had already signed licensing deals for it.
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