TikTok's Music Experiment Comes to an Abrupt End

Ariel Ariel
Sep. 27

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - So, Wallpapers?. Check out the full article for more insights.


For about a year now, TikTok has been experimenting with having a dedicated, subscription based, music app that where users can stream music directly. The app integrated right into TikTok so users can get music from their favorite videos as well as from major labels.

The app soft launched in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Australia, and Singapore last summer. With three million downloads in its first three months, it looked like TikTok Music will become a big headache for the big streamers as soon as it lands in the US.

But it didn't...

TikTok Music Downloads

After a big release that saw the app downloaded by more than a million users in its first two months, downloads started sliding. That's pretty expected for any app, but in TikTok's case, the sliding didn't stop.

By September, however, downloads dropped 35% to 781K and in October, TikTok Music's downloads took a big hit, dropping a whopping 48% to just 403K - a third of where they were at launch.

While there was some growth between October and February, every other month since has seen a decline in downloads. This month will be TikTok's worst as downloads are predicted to drop below 100K for the first time in the app's short life.

What a run for an experiment!

But... According to our App Intelligence, TikTok Music was downloaded 7.2M times since launch and earned Bytedance $2.7M of net revenue from the App Store and Google Play, which contributed nearly even shares. Like downloads, the last few months have not been great for TikTok music's revenue, which declined consistently every month.

Did TikTok Music fail, or was there something bigger at play?

In its announcement, TikTok said it's still focused on making it easy for its users to access music through an option to launch songs from videos in their favorite streaming app, making me believe the shutdown wasn't a result of the lack of growth but rather a business move to fortify its relationships with labels and streaming apps as opposed to battle them.

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.

All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.

Tagged: #streaming #music

Related Resources

Subscription App Revenue Is at an All-Time High
Insights
Subscription App Revenue Is at an All-Time High

I recently gave a keynote at the App Promotion Summit about the state of mobile apps. My overall theme was to highlight ...

The Rankings Unchanged, But Revenue Soars - The Highest Earning Apps in the World in September
Insights
The Rankings Unchanged, But Revenue Soars - The Highest Earning Apps in the World in September

The data has been analyzed, and the top earners across the iOS App Store and Google Play for September 2024 are ready to...