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TikTok may have recently announced the shutdown of its TikTok Music streaming platform (in the handful of countries where it was available, to begin with), but the social media platform’s integration with the world of music streaming continues nonetheless.
TikTok announced on Thursday (November 7) the launch of its ‘Share to TikTok’ feature, which is sort of the reverse of the ‘Add to Music’ feature it’s been rolling out over the past year.
While ‘Add to Music’ allows TikTok users to save a song they found on TikTok to their favorite music streaming app, ‘Share to TikTok’ allows users to share music they found on streaming platforms to TikTok.
For the time being at least, ‘Share to TikTok’ is available only on Apple Music and Spotify. Music, podcasts, and audiobooks on those platforms will all be shareable to TikTok. The feature is available now.
There are two ways to share: Users can post to the TikTok Feed (FYP and Stories) by sharing tracks, albums, playlists, or other content using the green screen feature or Photo Mode. They can also share content through direct messages to other users of TikTok Messages.
The content shared will always include a link back to the original streaming service where it’s hosted.
“‘Share to TikTok’… will be an amazing way of promoting artists and tracks to the TikTok community.”
Ole Obermann, TikTok
“Today’s launch of ‘Share to TikTok’ is the latest example of our ongoing commitment to support music discovery and artist promotion in partnership with music streaming services,” said Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music Business Development at TikTok.
“Since its launch, ‘Add To Music App’ has already been responsible for hundreds of millions of track saves and billions of streams on our partner music streaming services. ‘Share to TikTok’ takes the user experience full circle, and will be an amazing way of promoting artists and tracks to the TikTok community.”
Lindsey Kelt Zikry, TikTok’s Global Product Partnerships Lead, added: “We already know that creative expression is a core tenet of the TikTok user and creator experience, a tenet that is also strongly valued by our DSP partners.
“Our ‘Share To TikTok’ integration enables seamless sharing of content from music streaming services to TikTok, unlocking a limitless new method of creative expression for users and creators alike, along with an ability for artists, authors, and podcasters to seamlessly connect with their audiences on TikTok.”
In its announcement of the new TikTok integration, Spotify also noted its previously announced integration with Instagram, which allows users to save songs they find on Instagram to their Spotify account.
“We know our listeners crave a seamless listening experience across all of their devices, platforms, and apps, and our ambition is to be accessible everywhere our listeners are,” Spotify said in an announcement on Thursday (November 7).
“This expands on our existing Save feature with TikTok, along with other social sharing integrations across Meta, Snapchat, X, TikTok, and more.”
“Creative expression is a core tenet of the TikTok user and creator experience.”
Lindsey Kelt Zikry, TikTok
TikTok’s increasing integration with music streaming platforms comes amid ongoing tensions between the short video platform and music rights holders.
After resolving the licensing dispute with Universal Music Group (UMG) earlier this year, during which the music of UMG-signed artists disappeared from the platform, TikTok is now embroiled in a licensing dispute with Merlin, the licensing org for indie labels and distributors.
TikTok recently halted re-licensing talks with Merlin, purportedly over concerns about a lack of quality control related to copyright and streaming fraud. The platform is now negotiating individual licensing deals with indie companies represented by Merlin. UnitedMasters and Ditto Music have signed standalone deals with TikTok.
TikTok is also facing legal issues in a number of countries, including the US, where a law passed this year requires TikTok parent ByteDance to divest its US business or face a ban on the app as of January 2025. TikTok is challenging the law in court.
Meanwhile, the government of Canada announced this week that it has ordered TikTok to shut down its Canadian operations, although Canadians will continue to have access to the app. TikTok has said it plans to challenge this in court as well.Music Business Worldwide