- TikTok parent ByteDance filed a trademark application for a service called “TikTok Music.”
- The Service may display an application for users to purchase, play, share and download music.
- ByteDance already runs a separate music streaming app called Resso in three markets.
TikTok is a go-to platform for discovering new music, regularly pushing songs into the mainstream and often topping charts like the Billboard 100 and Spotify Viral 50. Now the company seems to be getting closer to launching a service independent music streaming of its own.
Its parent company ByteDance filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office in May for “TikTok Music,” applying the phrase to a variety of goods and services, including a mobile app that would allow users to “buy, play, share, download music, songs, albums, lyrics”.
Other potential use cases for TikTok Music in ByteDance’s app include an app that would allow users to “stream audio and video live” as well as the ability to “edit and upload photos as playlist covers.” and “music commentary.” songs and albums”.
ByteDance first filed its “TikTok Music” trademark application in Australia in November and later filed in the US on May 9.
The idea that ByteDance will launch an independent streaming service “TikTok Music” in the US to compete with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music is not unfounded. It already runs a streaming app called Resso in three markets — India, Brazil and Indonesia — that has grabbed market share from other broadcasters in the past year.
TikTok Music may follow in the footsteps of ByteDance’s streaming music app Resso
It’s easy to see a scenario in which the company could try to convert its existing TikTok user base into paid music subscribers. ByteDance followed that exact strategy to grow Resso in Brazil, adding a button for TikTok users to click on the Resso app when they came across a song they wanted to hear in full, The Information reported. The company had plans to use TikTok as a marketing tool for Resso in India before the app was banned in June 2020 as part of a geopolitical dispute between India and China, two former Resso employees told Insider.
TikTok did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on what its plans were for the “TikTok Music” trademark.
But in applying for it in the US, it will ultimately have to demonstrate that it is either actually using the trademark for its specified services or that it has a bona fide intention to use it in connection with by selling a product. according to three trademark law experts.
“Typically a company the size of TikTok or ByteDance will only file trademark applications for items that they’re seriously considering,” trademark attorney Josh Gerben of the Gerben Law Firm told Insider. “If you look back at the trademark filings of any major company, you’ll see the ones they filed that never materialized. But a lot of times they do. And a lot of times it’s something they’re seriously working on.”
ByteDance listed a number of potential use cases for the “TikTok Music” trademark, including an app that allows users to “live stream interactive audio and video media programs in the fields of entertainment, fashion, sports and current events,” among his proposals. goods and services.
The move is typical for a technology company, Michelle Cooke, a partner and co-head of the media and entertainment industry division at law firm Arent Fox Schiff, told Insider.
“As a technology company, your options are pretty wide,” Cooke said. “If you look at some of the industry leaders and how they’ve expanded into a wide range of goods, products and services that include digital assets and the form that they can take, your ability to say as a technology company, ‘I I have a bona fide purpose to be lying’ – the project is there.”