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As TikTok continues to fight for its future in the US, there is still a lot going on with its music business, both in that country and globally.
A roundup of the last week’s news starts with a partnership with YouTube Music, which has become the latest streaming service to support TikTok’s ‘Add to Music App’ feature.
That means TikTok users will be able to save songs they discover within the app to a dedicated playlist on YouTube Music.
Fancy some fun historical context? In 2022, YouTube Music boss Lyor Cohen said in an interview that “short-form video that doesn’t lead anywhere is the most dangerous thing I’ve seen the music business face in a long time”.
This was a clear jab at TikTok, as well as making the point that short videos on YouTube Shorts did lead somewhere: to YouTube Music.
A couple of months later, TikTok’s then-music boss Ole Obermann responded by joking “I’ll call Lyor and ask him if he’ll let us integrate a TikTok video into the YouTube Music service”. Two and a half years later, the integration has finally happened.
All of the big global streaming services are now working with TikTok’s ‘Add to Music App’, with the company saying that since it launched globally last year it has “generated well over a billion track saves – and many billions more streams” on those partners.
Elsewhere in TikTok music-land, more than 74 million people watched the app’s livestreams of the Tomorrowland electronic-music festival last month – breaking the record set in 2023 of 16 million viewers.
TikTok added that there was more than 2.4bn views of posts tagged #Tomorrowland on its app during the festival, with the event’s official profile adding 1.9 million new followers over its two-week run, taking it to more than 9.2 million.
One bit of news that’s less positive for TikTok’s electronic-music community was reported by EDM·com. It noted updates to the app’s terms of service that require people to “own all the rights to the music included” or “have permission from all necessary rights holders” to use original sound in their livestreams.
That’s not great news for DJs streaming their sets. Perhaps TikTok could follow Twitch in negotiating licensing deals that specifically cover DJ sets in livestreams.
TikTok has also just launched a new singing contest called Next Up: Live Music. It’s a partnership with iHeartRadio and runs through to September, as singers compete to reach a live final in Los Angeles.
The contest is only open to US residents aged over 18, who must own the rights to at least one original song, and have more than 50,000 followers on TikTok.
Outside core music news TikTok has just launched a new version of its app called TikTok Pro. Initially available in Germany, Portugal and Spain it has an emphasis on “joyful and entertaining content”, including content from charities and non-governmental organisations, with a donations program built around that.
Last week TikTok also launched its ‘Footnotes’ feature, which is community notes, allowing people to add warnings or extra information to videos.
Finally, the company has also published a report on shopping trends for its UK community, including the news that “iconic music events are influencing Brits’ shopping habits”. Yes, this is about Oasis: “parkas, track tops, football shirts and, of course, the bucket hat…”
However, TikTok also noted that Pitbull’s current tour is also sparking lots of shopping on its platform, as fans buy costumes to emulate their idol – yes, this is A Real Thing happening at his gigs, bald-wigs included.

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(Plus all the weird links & unusual music we find online.)
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Music Ally's Head of Insight More by Stuart Dredge
Get a mix of the vital news, analysis, and insider tips from across Music Ally’s services.
(Plus all the weird links & unusual music we find online.)
It’s FREE, fun*, and every Friday.
*actual levels of fun may vary wildly
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