Bytedance has been building an online music platform named “Yinyuebang” as it advances further into the Chinese digital music market dominated by Tencent, media outlet TechPlanet reported.
Why it matters: Access to copyrighted music may be limiting growth for Bytedance’s short video app Douyin and its overseas version TikTok, with major record labels such as Universal Music and Sony Music demanding substantially higher royalties.
- Yinyuebang may be the company’s music-streaming app that targets listeners in emerging markets that had been reported in May.
Details: Yinyuebang currently only has a website and is not available on Apple’s China App Store or any Android stores.
- The music platform’s website has a library which currently consists of 26 songs popular on Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok. The songs are created by artists in Douyin’s independent artist support program and are owned by the short video app.
- Bytedance’s Yinyuebang website is an updated version of one previously used by its home design app, “Zhuxiaobang.”
- The music platform’s slogan translates to “listen to popular music, make like-minded friends,” according to the text embedded in the website’s code, according to TechPlanet.
- Yinyuebang’s functionalities are very basic at the moment, with only three tabs: “discover music,” “music categories,” and “trending music.”
Bytedance has reportedly acquired UK music AI startup, Jukedeck
Context: Bytedance has been reluctant to pay music labels higher royalties for access to copyrighted music, with the company’s head of global music business development cited as saying that the platform does not require a label’s entire collection.
- TikTok started a talent search in South Korea and Japan in April to discover and support independent musicians.
- Bytedance in July also acquired Jukedeck, a music AI startup that enables users to create music generated by artificial intelligence, to bolster its short video apps.