Those living in the United States may not know it, but TikTok offered its own music streaming service to take the fight directly to Spotify and Apple Music Imaginatively called “TikTok Music,” the service is available in a variety of territories, including Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, and Brazil, and was launched in 2023

TikTok Music was designed to work with TikTok's main app, backed by agreements with music publishers, in an effort to create a more inclusive experience that integrates TikTok's social media app with the music users dance to, as well as rival music It was supposed to be TikTok's answer to streaming services But you will notice that this is all in the past tense

TikTok Music was shut down in November, allowing the company to focus on interoperability between TikTok and other streaming services

To help users migrate playlists and other data from TikTok Music to other streaming services, TikTok Music has created a help page It states: “Unfortunately, TikTok Music will end on November 28, 2024 Therefore, users will have a few weeks to sort out their affairs and finally say goodbye to the fledgling streamer

TikTok Music has not been without problems during its short existence It ran into trouble with music labels over the amount they would pay artists to appear on the service, and over how to protect artists' rights amid the constant onslaught of AI content generation and learning AI models

Yahoo Finance further points to cases where songs from big-name artists such as Taylor Swift and Drake were pulled from the service for months, only to be settled and sorted out in May of this year In the long run, these are artists who are gaining users, and if you are struggling to keep them around, your music service will not be long for this world

Then there's TikTok, which could be banned in the US and is due in court early next year As successful as this dance app has been over the years, I don't think I want to be on TikTok right now