I was about eight years old when I first encountered a computer virus after illicitly downloading music on my household PC. YouTube was far too brutal on my poor dial-up connection. Seconds after I tried to download some tunes, my computer processed its last bytes.
Since then, I haven't had to encounter any digital viruses. Thanks to Apple Music and Spotify for changing the game. We have everything—from Pink Floyd to Falguni Pathak—in one neat place. Closer home, competitors like Gaana and JioSaavn emerged, gaining a significant stronghold, especially across regional music. Southeast Asia saw local champions like Tencent-backed Joox find millions of downloads.
But check out any streaming charts, and the songs at the top are usually those from popular TikToks. So it makes sense for its parent company ByteDance to have a streaming app of its own in countries where the app is still legal TikTok has been banned in India since June 2020. It briefly suffered the same fate in Indonesia in 2018.
However, ByteDance has a last chance to have a foot in India's door with Resso, a music-streaming app. With claims of nearly 10 million daily active users, Resso has escaped the Indian government's scanner. After building up a tidy user base with the help of its algorithm, Resso has now set its sight on monetisation.
While the return of TikTok might be on the cards, ByteDance has been hard at work in the shadows through Resso…
