Douyin joins Apple Music partnership program

Douyin, known as Tik Tok overseas, has joined a partnership program of Apple Music, a move that will help strengthen copyright protection on the popular mini-music video app.  

It is the first mini video platform in China to join Apple’s music service.

Through Douyin's new partnership with Apple, Apple Music subscribers can listen to related songs directly in the application. Non-members can receive a free three-month trial of Apple Music. 

Douyin, the 15-second video app, integrates music, social media and fashion snippets. It has about 150 million monthly active users now, ByteDance, the parent firm of Toutiao and Douyin said.

Three weeks ago, Douyin announced partnerships with several music and lyrics publishers, including Universal Music, Warner Music and Taihe Music, to gain access to more than 10 million copyrighted tracks.

The copyright partnerships are expected to help Douyin expand into overseas markets.

Tik Tok doubled its number of daily active users in Japan during the summer.