ByteDance’s social music app Resso enters India
Over the last few years, we saw all the major music streaming services come to India. Resso is now joining the fray, with hopes of bringing a social aspect to music consumption.
Resso shares its parent company with TikTok, both of which are owned by ByteDance. TikTok has had a dream run in India, with over 200 million users in a short span. While music is a big part of the TikTok experience, Resso is a standalone music app, which puts social sharing at its heart.
The “social music streaming app” offers a very different experience that revolves around exploration. As soon as the app is opened, music starts playing in an infinitely scrolling format, which introduces new songs, artists, and genres to the user.
Hari Nair, the Head of Music Content and Partnership, Resso India, explained how Resso is looking to change how people consume Music, “Gen Z and millennials are at the core of our offering, and both Music and social networking are central to their daily lives. Our goal is to encourage them as well as everyday music listeners to express themselves interactively and engagingly. The relationship between music and the listener is currently passive, with Vibes, Comments, and other features, Resso aims to transform this through a new and compelling music streaming experience.”
At the media briefing, Resso mentioned that it has already secured the license for Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Merlin, and Beggars Group, as well as major Indian players, including T-Series, Saregama, Zee Music, YRF Music, Times Music, Tips, Venus and Shemaroo. Universal Music remains the only notable omission.
Key features and subscription
Adding to the social aspect, Resso has a feature called Vibes, where users can create videos, pictures, or gifs based on the song and lyrics and share it directly. It also has comments feature, where users can comment on each song. In respect to the risk of inappropriate content and foul comments, Resso clarified that an in-house team at Resso would continuously monitor the user content and comments.
Users can also connect with others on the platform with similar tastes. The Lyrics Quotes option can be used to share specific parts of the lyrics on to other social platforms.
Mr. Nair also emphasized that Resso team has worked explicitly towards a more in-depth segmentation of music genres for more specific song discovery. For example, under Electronic Music, there is EDM sub-genre, which then has a category called Techno. Under Techno, there’s a genre called House that is segmented into different styles like Afro house or Deep House.
Resso opts for a freemium model, where users can get the Music streaming app with ads for free, whereas the premium upgrade makes its ad-free, brings 256kbps streaming as well as the ability to skip infinite tracks. Pricing starts at Rs 99 for Android and Rs 119 for iOS.
Over the last few years, we saw all the major music streaming services come to India. Resso is now joining the fray, with hopes of bringing a social aspect to music consumption. Resso shares its parent company with TikTok, both of which are owned by ByteDance. TikTok has had a…
