A menacing rival for Spotify and Apple Music may be coming in the form of TikTok Music

And now, TechRadar reports about a new patent TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance has filed, which should make the likes of Spotify and Apple Music freeze in fear. Yes, it seems we might be getting TikTok Music, a music streaming platform.

TikTok Music: a trademark application (for now)

TikTok’s popularity has been ever-growing, and now the social media platform is looking to expand its horizons even more with a rival to Spotify, Apple Music, and other music streaming services. The patent we are talking about is filed by ByteDance with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The trademark is for a service that’s called TikTok Music. And it’s not only the name of the service that’s having us think about a rival to Spotify. The application of the trademark TikTok Music is listed in smartphone and tablet computer apps allowing “users to purchase, play, share, download music, songs, albums, lyrics, quotes, create, recommend, share his/her playlists, lyrics, quotes, take, edit and upload photographs as the cover of playlists, comment on music, songs, and albums”. As you can see, it really does seem like soon Spotify and other music-streaming companies may be challenged by TikTok. And, the thing that TikTok has is this crazy-big popularity level, as well as the attention of all the young people around.

On top of that, the service may also had ads, which could imply TikTok Music will have an ad-supported tier, like, for example, Spotify’s free tier. At the moment, TikTok Music has not been announced or anything, and as things with patents go, it may never be announced, so do keep that in mind.

With that being said, its more than likely that we will indeed see TikTok Music launch soon.

Will TikTok Music face challenges from the US government?

As TechRadar rightfully underlines, TikTok Music may face some challenges though. You may have heard that lawmakers in the United States are having some doubts about TikTok and more specifically, its parent company ByteDance, and its connections to China.

For years TikTok has been suspected of having connections to China. Former US President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok, alleging it a national security risk, but later President Joe Biden revoked this ban (in June last year).

However, recently, there have been some concerns by US senators about TikTok. More specifically, there was a report by Buzzfeed News that stated TikTok’s engineers based in China could access US consumer data. Later, TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew admitted that some China-based employees can access US users info, including public videos and comments. However, he underlined none of the data is shared with the Chinese government.

TikTok’s CEO also stated that TikTok has limited links to ByteDance, and the information those employees are able to access about US users is not sensitive in nature.

We’ll have to wait and see how this will pan out and whether or not TikTok will be in big trouble from the US government. If that happens, you can imagine it will be a tough game to launch TikTok Music while the company is fighting to stay on the US market at all. But, none of this is etched in stone so far, so we’ll have to be patient.

Nevertheless, if TikTok does manage to launch TikTok Music, the service may become a big threat to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and other music streaming platforms, mainly judging by the way TikTok has managed to rule the world in the past few years.