Apple is linking up with Musical.ly, the popular music video app.
Musical.ly syncs up with Apple Music
The music app gets to expand its global reach; Apple gets a new marketing partner.
Musical.ly
Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
Musical.ly lets its users create and share their own music videos, using snippets of songs. Starting on Friday, Apple Music will be one of the services that supplies the songs. (Update: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Apple Music would replace music distributor 7digital; Musical.ly will continue to work with 7digital and recently renewed an agreement with the company.)
Connecting with Musical.ly gives Apple a new marketing venue: The app will promote Apple’s paid service to its own users, and will allow paying Apple Music subscribers to listen to full songs within the app.
Reps for both Apple and Musical.ly declined comment.
Musical.ly is a three-year-old Shanghai-based company that saw a huge spike in popularity last year, primarily among U.S. teens and tweens, many of whom use it as a social network. The company has also launched Live.ly, a livestreaming app.
Last year, Musical.ly reportedly raised $100 million at a $500 million valuation, and said it had more than 100 million users.
It’s possible that the service has peaked, though; while the main app spent much of last year at the top of Apple’s App Store rankings, it is currently at No. 89.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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