ByteDance to Shut Down Resso Streaming Service in India

ByteDance will shut down its music streaming service Resso in India at the end of January, Billboard has confirmed with a ByteDance representative.

The decision, which was first reported by India-based outlet Moneycontrol, was made after Resso was removed from the Google Play and the Apple App stores in December on the orders of the Indian government. Billboard had not been able to determine the reason behind those removals at press time.

Notably, India was Resso’s last remaining market after the app was previously shuttered in Brazil and Indonesia.

“Unfortunately, owing to local market conditions, we can no longer continue to serve users of Resso in India,” said a ByteDance spokesperson in a statement sent to Billboard. “We have therefore taken the decision to shut down Resso and its associated operations on January 31st. Users will be offered a refund of their remaining subscription fees.”

Another factor working against Resso in India — where streaming competitors include such widely-used platforms as Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn and Wynk — was Sony Music’s removal of its catalog from the service in September 2022.

ByteDance, the Chinese-owned company behind TikTok, first launched Resso in India and Indonesia in March 2020, offering both free and paid tiers, before introducing it in Brazil later that year. In May 2023, ByteDance ended the free tier, making Resso a premium-only service.

In July, ByteDance announced it would roll out its new social music streaming service, TikTok Music, in Brazil and Indonesia, leading to the shutdown of Resso in both markets. Just two weeks later, TikTok Music was launched in closed beta in three additional countries: Mexico, Australia and Singapore, followed by a public launch in those markets in October.

ByteDance confirmed with Billboard that it has no plans to launch TikTok Music in India, where the government banned TikTok in June 2020, along with 58 other Chinese-owned apps, citing data privacy concerns. Those bans were made permanent in January 2021.