A new report by Recode claims that Apple have signed a deal with the popular video music app Musical.ly which will see Apple Music supply the song clips and allow users to create their own videos singing along to popular tracks.
The Shanghai-based Musical.ly allows users to create their own music videos to any song and teens remain their main target market. At present, it is believed to have over 100 million subscribers.
UK based 7digital currently supplies the music for the Musical.ly app but this switch over to Apple Music will apparently occur sometime on Friday. This change will allow subscribers to listen to full songs in the app whereas those who don’t subscribe can only listen to clips.
This deal with Apple will allow Musical.ly to expand to 120 countries from the current 30 and for Apple, it gives the company yet another way to market Apple Music and grow its user base. Through the app, users will be able to subscribe to Apple Music:
Apple’s extensive licensing deals will allow Musical.ly to expand the number of countries it supports from 30 to 120. And 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.
Apple Music has continued to grow over the past few years and was recently reported to have more than 20 million paying subscribers and even more on the free trial.