TikTok Owner Launches Social Media For Music

ByteDance Ltd. launched a social network for music in India at a time the nation's crowded music streaming market is yet to get users into the habit of paying.

Resso allows users to stream, share lyrics, comments and engage with other listeners, generate music-accompanied GIFs and videos, something that's also a hit on its sister app TikTok, the company said in a statement.

Barring Universal Music, the Beijing-based firm secured licence deals from Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Merlin and Indian publishers like T-Series, Saregama, Zee Music, YRF Music, Times Music, Tips, Venus and Shemaroo, to name a few, the statement said.

Unlike TikTok, which has around 200 million users in India and follows a free-to-use model, Resso has a “freemium version” that provides an extensive catalogue of music on demand. The streaming platform also has a paid model with features such as downloadable content, unlimited skips and high-quality audio. Users can upgrade to a monthly premium subscription at Rs 99 for Android and Rs 119 for iOS, the company said in the statement.

This comes when other music streaming apps—Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, Gaana.com, YouTube and JioSaavn, among others—expanded aggressively in India as data became cheaper. But, according to Deloitte, less than 1 percent of the subscribers pay for music and nearly 14 percent are bundled users—who pay for services as part of data packs—while the remaining 85 percent are free users.

“It's a crowded market, but streaming is still in its infancy in India. So, with more players this will only help to grow the market to the benefit of everybody,” Jehil Thakkar, partner at Deloitte India said, adding library is going to be commodity, and user interface and original content are going to be a differentiator. Social angle, he said, seemed to be Resso's differentiator.

Hari Nair, head of music content and partnership at Resso India, said Gen Z and millennials are at the core of the company's offering and both music and social networking are central to their daily lives. “Our goal is to encourage them as well as everyday music listeners to express themselves in an interactive and engaging way,” Nair said in the statement.