Chinese news outlet 36Kr reported on Thursday that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, plans to launch a music streaming product for the domestic market later this year. The product is tentatively named Feile, and internally called Luna. Currently, the app is managed by the TikTok team. ByteDance has yet to offer an official response to the news.

The Beijing-based company’s music business is said to be supported by a reception, as well as market and algorithm teams. The reception is led by Alex Zhu, Vice President of ByteDance Products and Strategy. Three staff members report directly to Alex: Cao Zhen, Head of Foreign Music Player Resso and Music Library, Ole Bermann, Head of Foreign Copyright, and Lu Xi, Head of Domestic Law Cooperation. of musical author. Then, the TikTok market team is responsible for cooperation and publicity and copyright distribution for Chinese musicians, while the algorithm team is responsible for technical support such as soundtracks. intelligence and risk control.

ByteDance explored a potential music business as early as 2019 and planned to launch a music streaming project in China named W. However, this project fell through due to severe lack of copyrights and vague product positioning in Development. In March last year, ByteDance launched a music streaming app called Resso in India. But in China, because the music copyright market has long been monopolized by TencentByteDance has few advantages.

In April this year, ByteDance announced the establishment of a music department, consisting of TikTok Music and responsible for domestic music business, China Music Business Development Group and Overseas Music Group. TechWeb reported that ByteDance held alpha testing for Yinhefangzhou, a music agent platform, in July this year.

ByteDance hails a turning point to expand its music business in China when TencentThe exclusive copyright of becomes invalid. On July 24 this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation fined Tencent for promoting the exclusive music copyright and ordered him to lift the exclusive music copyright within 30 days of the declaration.

SEE ALSO: Tencent Music must give up exclusive online music licensing rights, in favor of competitors

Compared to Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music, the main advantages of ByteDance are its advertising and distribution. TikTok could bring a high degree of online traffic flow for distribution, allowing ByteDance to support independent musicians. A Tencent The musician said he believes that when the exclusive copyright expires, music streaming platforms will compete with independent musicians instead.