TikTok on Thursday debuted a new feature that will more closely connect its app, which already influences which songs top the charts, to the streaming services where users discover and play their favorite music. With the launch of a new “Share to TikTok” feature, music fans will be able to directly share tracks from both Apple Music and Spotify to the short-form video app, including by posting to their For You feed, their Stories, or DMs (direct messages).
The shared content can include tracks, albums, playlists, and more, and will link back to the music-streaming service. This allows users to move between their preferred music app and TikTok to further engage with the content. In doing so, TikTok gains an increased ability to connect users with their favorite songs and artists. This is something it was already doing due to the nature of its app, which allows music clips to be added to users’ videos, where they end up driving TikTok trends.
With “Share to TikTok,” users will now be able to post to TikTok’s feed or Stories, and they can use the popular green screen feature to showcase the content or take advantage of Photo Mode, TikTok says. On Spotify, users can share music, podcasts, or audiobooks by tapping the “Share” button, or they can access the share icon in the bottom-right corner of the “Now Playing” screen.
A similar feature is available through Apple Music’s Share Sheet, where users will be presented with the different options to Post a Video, Post a Photo, or share the music in a Message.
Over the years, TikTok’s growing popularity drove its ability to change the music industry overall and how people discover new music. As Business Insider recently reported, songs that trend on TikTok tend to end up in the Billboard 100 or Spotify Viral 50, and 67% of the app’s users are likely to seek out music after hearing the songs on TikTok. The company’s relationship with music labels, artists, and marketers also helps to keep the app flooded with new releases.
For a time, TikTok parent company ByteDance considered taking advantage of TikTok’s power more directly by going head-to-head with Apple and Spotify with its own streaming app, TikTok Music. The app was tested in a handful of markets, but the company later decided to shut down its global efforts on this front back in September.
Instead, TikTok’s focus is on driving music fans to its app for discovery. Working toward this goal, TikTok had previously launched an “Add to Music App” feature that let TikTok users save a track they found on the app to their preferred music streaming service.
“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, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Business Development, in an announcement. “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,” he added.
The move also may help to ease tensions with streamers, which saw TikTok as a potential new rival. Now TikTok will actively help move traffic both to and from their apps, instead of trying to steal their customers.
“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 [music streaming service] partners,” noted Lindsey Kelt Zikry, TikTok’s Global Product Partnerships Lead, in a statement. “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.”
TikTok is not the only social destination Spotify has added in recent days. It also announced a partnership with Meta for sharing songs to Spotify from Instagram with a tap. Spotify has existing integrations with other Meta apps, as well as Snapchat, X, and others.