China’s ByteDance is in talks with music labels for expanding its music-streaming service globally to compete with industry leaders such as Spotify, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The TikTok parent plans to eventually integrate music streaming within its short-video service and scale it to serve as a major platform for distributing music globally, according to the report that cited people with knowledge of the discussions.
Shares of Spotify pared gains to trade flat in after-market trading on Wednesday, while Warner Music Group gained 4 percent.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The company had discussed in recent months launching its Resso music-streaming service, currently available in India, Indonesia and Brazil, in more than a dozen additional markets, but expansion to the US isn’t immediately on the cards, according to the report.
Last week, Reuters reported that audio streaming service Spotify had acquired Kinzen, a firm that has helped it identify harmful content on the platform.
The acquisition is part of Spotify’s efforts to deal with harmful content on its service after a backlash earlier this year over “The Joe Rogan Experience”, in which the podcaster was accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
The Dublin-based firm has been working with Spotify since 2020, initially focusing on the integrity of election-related content around the world. Since then, Kinzen’s remit has expanded to include targeting misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.
Earlier this year, Spotify said it would be more transparent in how it determines what is acceptable and unacceptable content. It published its platform rules for the first time in January. In June, it formed a Safety Advisory Council to provide input on harmful content.
