BYTEDANCE is venturing into artificial-intelligence (AI) generated music, hiring the staff of a London-based startup after buying some of its intellectual property assets, according to LinkedIn posts and a source with knowledge of the matter.

The move could give one of the world’s most valuable startups more options for the music used on its video-streaming apps TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin. Many videos on the service use popular songs whose rights are controlled by large record companies.

The source was quoted by Reuters yesterday as saying that “several members” of the team at AI startup Jukedeck had joined ByteDance after the company acquired some of the Jukedeck’s IP assets.

TikTok, which allows users to create and share short videos, has been downloaded more than 1 billion times globally, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, and its popularity has helped ByteDance to a potential valuation of around US$75 billion.

Its videos rely heavily on music, with users often setting comedy antics and dance moves to popular tunes. Videos can be removed if the music is reported for copyright infringement.

Matthew Brennan, founder of tech consultancy China Channel, said while TikTok was evolving to include longer-form video content similar to that available on other platforms like Alphabet Inc.’sYouTube, music was central to its user experience.

“Over time, music for TikTok will become less important but certainly today it’s very important,” he said.(SD-Agencies)