Music has been a key element in the rise of TikTok, with music publishers now focusing on the app as a major platform to connect with audiences, with some even changing the names of their artists' songs to better align with TikTok trends.
But if TikTok moves out of the US next year, as the current bill of sale suggests, music publishers will have to shift their focus, and music fans will also have to go elsewhere to keep up with the latest song trends.
And Instagram hopes to be the app that fills the gap on this front.
Over the past few months, Instagram has added several new features related to music, including Its “Add your music” stickerMusic in notes, displaying song lyrics in reels, and most recently, songs on profiles.
And now it's exploring another musical element:
As you can see in this illustration posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram is testing a new integration with Spotify that will enable IG users to constantly display the track they're listening to via their IG Notes indicator.
This will act as a sort of music promoter, as it will let you know what your friends are listening to at any given moment.
Of course, if you don't want people to know that you mostly listen to Billy Joel classics or Chipmunks remixes, you can opt out of this kind of sharing. But if you want, you'll be able to consistently highlight the music you're interested in by sharing that information in your inbox Notes bubble.
It's not a major integration, it's not a game-changing tool that will modify your approach to the app. But it's an interesting one that, again, offers more music options in IG, as it seeks to replace TikTok as the leading music discussion space.
And in fact, it does seem to be the most obvious choice in this regard.
Snapchat is also popular among younger users, but it's not designed for public sharing like TikTok and IG. That makes Instagram a really logical solution, and if TikTok does indeed exit the US market, Instagram and parent company Meta could become major beneficiaries.
So will TikTok actually leave the US?
For now, it looks like it will have to, as the sell-off bill is set to take effect early next year. TikTok is still challenging the bill, while presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he is against the sell-off effort (even though he originally proposed it in 2020).
This could mean that if Trump is elected, he could overturn the bill, but right now, it seems likely that if TikTok refuses to sell to a US company, it will be kicked out. Chinese officials are adamant in their stance that it will not be sold, which could open the way for IG to become the new home of music discovery.
This means that all this new music can add a lot of value.