China’s ByteDance Ltd, which owns TikTok, is building a paid music service that it plans to launch in emerging markets later this year, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. While it doesn’t specify which countries, the report says ByteDance has secured rights from T-Series and Times Music but is yet to secure rights from Universal, Warner and Sony, which suggests the company will focus on Asia first and North America, Europe and Latin America later. The new app won’t be named after TikTok, ByteDance’s most popular app in India and worldwide, but will try to monetise TikTok’s user base by convincing some to become paying customers. It will have songs and videos on demand but isn't a clone of Spotify or Apple Music, Bloomberg’s sources say. While Tiktok gave ByteDance a worldwide presence, the company relies heavily on ads on monetise its huge user base. The paid music service is an attempt to diversify its sources of income and show that music subscriptions can work in emerging markets. Another reason why it is looking at music specifically is that TikTok already has a huge influence on the music industry - the current number 1 song worldwide, Old Road Town, first became popular in videos shared on TikTok. What ByteDance will be up against In India, ByteDance’s music app will be up against a host of local and global players, including JioSaavn, Gaana, Wynk, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music. Most charge users ₹99 a month and…
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