Musical.ly Shuts Down, Merges With Sister App TikTok

Musical.ly, teen-beloved music app, is no more.

Bytedance, the Chinese company that purchased Musical.ly last November for $1 billion, has decided to fold Musical.ly into another one of its similar, existing apps called TikTok. As of Wednesday evening (August 1), both short-form video apps are available exclusively under the TikTok name. Musical.ly's community, including all user data and accounts, will be automatically migrated to TikTok via an app update.

The merger follows the the closure of Musical.ly’s standalone live-streaming app, Live.ly, in June, which was part of the deal agreed upon in the Musical.ly acquisition.

In a press release announcing the plans, Musical.ly co-founder Alex Zhu – now SVP of TikTok – said that “combining Musical.ly and TikTok is a natural fit given the shared mission of both experiences – to create a community where everyone can be a creator”.

Launched in September 2016, TikTok was named one of the world's most downloaded apps by Sensor Tower. According to the company, it was downloaded from the iOS App Store 45.8 million times in the first quarter of this year – more than Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Chinese publication Xinhuanet also reports TikTok had 150 million daily active users and 500 million monthly active users in June of this year. Musical.ly, meanwhile, recently surpassed 100 million monthly active users – 50 million fewer than what TikTok receives in a single day.

As for what the merger means for fans of Musical.ly, the transition should be relatively seamless. Users will see their app switch to TikTok once they update the app, and they should find their account, videos, and personal settings inside the new app as per usual.

Bytedance says TikTok will also incorporate the most popular elements of Musical.ly and Tik Tok into a new feed that highlights the user’s community, plus a “For You” section that offers personalized video recommendations. Other new features include a “reaction” feature which will allow users to respond to friends’ videos from their phone, VR-like filters activated by blinking, green screen-like background effects, and other creative tools.