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Apple Music reportedly strikes deal with popular social media app Musical.ly [Update]

[Update: Partnership is officially announced. Tweet added to bottom of post.]

According to a new report from Recode, Apple has agreed to a partnership with popular music video app Musical.ly. The partnership will see Apple Music supply the song clips in the Musical.ly application, which allows users to create their own videos singing along to popular songs.

Currently, Musical.ly receives its songs from U.K.-based provider 7digital. The switch to Apple Music, however, will officially occur on Friday. With the changeover, Apple Music subscribers will be able to listen to full songs in the Musical.ly application, whereas non-subscribers will only get brief clips of songs.

For Musical.ly, the deal with Apple will allow it to expand from 30 countries to 120 countries. Meanwhile, for Apple, it gives it another way to market Apple Music and continue to grow its user base. Users will be able to easily subscribe to Apple Music and allow Apple to promote the paid tier of the service.

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.

Musical.ly is believed to have over 100 million users, the majority of which are teens. The company, based out of Shanghai, raised $100 million at a $500 million valuation last year. The app allows users to create their own music videos, set to any song they like. For instance, users can sing along to a song, dance, and more.

Once a user has created their video, they can share it with friends and to other social media networks.

Apple’s partnership with Musical.ly comes as the company continues to grow Apple Music. Most recently, the service was said to have well past 20 million paying users, with even more if you count the users on the free trial.

If you’re unfamiliar with Musical.ly, check out the video below for a look at what the app allows you to create and share. Are you a user of the app? If so, will Apple Music’s partnership have any sort of impact on how you use it? Let us know what you think down in the comments.

Update 04/28/2017 1:37 PM PDT:

Apple’s official @AppleMusic account on Twitter has announced the partnership.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njtMuGaSIGg

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com