TikTok has launched a feature enabling users to save on-platform songs to Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music playlists. Photo Credit: Jonathan Kemper
TikTok has officially rolled out an “Add to Music App” feature that enables users to save songs to playlists on streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
The ByteDance-owned video-sharing app, which has long touted its perceived role as a music-discovery tool, formally announced the Add to Music App option today. Currently available in the US and the UK, with a wider release in the works, Add to Music App is live in the form of an “Add Music” button.
Said button appears alongside TikTok videos’ track information and on artists’ “Sound Detail” pages, and TikTokers can with a tap save a song to a default playlist on their preferred streaming source, according to the controversial platform.
Notably, the relevant TikTok release doesn’t mention Apple Music by name – although the Spotify rival is displayed as a selectable “preferred music app” in a featured image. Execs from Amazon Music and Spotify provided lengthy remarks for the same release, whereas comments from Apple Music didn’t make their way into the document.
Beyond these interesting omissions, evidence suggests that the music-saving tool could have a material impact on viral tracks’ non-TikTok streams.
To be sure, even before the new feature’s arrival, more than a few songs had capitalized upon TikTok trends en route to recording noteworthy commercial achievements on Spotify and elsewhere. Of course, one needn’t stretch the imagination to see how the just-added TikTok offering could boost the results associated with similar trends moving forward.
Bigger picture, multiple reports have shed light upon TikTok’s (perhaps obvious) part in fueling certain content’s viral ascent – meaning that today’s development also bolsters the ability of the company itself to elevate tracks. But TikTok’s music ambitions, far from starting and ending with helping songs score more listeners, now extend to several areas.
On the year, the SoundOn distribution and promotion service operator TikTok has inked expanded deals with DistroKid and Warner Music, continued building out its namesake music streaming service, launched an artist-discovery contest, and debuted an emerging-artist program called Elevate.
Not stopping there, TikTok, which began 2023 by facing ample congressional scrutiny and government-level bans in nations around the globe, is poised to close out the year with a December 10th concert. Dubbed “In the Mix,” the Arizona event is expected to feature performances from (among others) Cardi B, Anitta, and, significantly, acts enrolled in the aforementioned Elevate program.
