ByteDance has been testing Resso, a new music app, in India and Indonesia, but is yet to seal rights deals with the world's three largest music companies
- India and Indonesia are first to sample ByteDance's latest — Company looking to become less dependent on advertising income
Context & Ripple Effects
ByteDance's music ambitions have been public since May, when it was reported to be building a paid service aimed mostly at emerging markets, and November brought word of talks with record companies targeting a Brazil, India, and Indonesia launch. Today's report shows the testing phase underway in two of those markets — but with the world's three largest music companies still unsigned, the app's launch catalog hinges on smaller rights holders.
First-order effects
- ByteDance can run Resso trials in India and Indonesia without major-label catalogs, but a public launch with only indie repertoire would put the service at a disadvantage against incumbents in both markets.
- The missing deals give the three majors leverage: they can hold out knowing ByteDance wants Resso to feed on the same music that drives TikTok engagement.
Second-order effects
- Independent labels become the near-term catalog bridge — a path TikTok soon took with its licensing deal with rights agency Merlin covering indie music for videos and, reportedly, Resso itself.
- The majors face a two-front negotiation, since ByteDance controls TikTok's promotional reach and can price music licensing against the exposure its platforms already deliver to their artists.
Third-order effects
- The emerging-markets-first playbook ran its course: Resso launched in India in 2020 with a sub-$2 premium tier, expanded globally by 2022, and ByteDance ultimately moved to shut it down in India in 2024 — evidence that advertising diversification into subscriptions is harder than distribution.
- If the pattern holds, ByteDance's diversification away from advertising income shifts toward areas it controls end-to-end, like AI infrastructure, rather than licensed-content businesses where rights holders hold the pricing power.
The trend: ByteDance is trying to convert TikTok's distribution muscle into subscription and licensing businesses beyond advertising, with content rights — not technology — as the binding constraint.