Douyin adds 10m tracks to its playlist

Douyin, China’s top mini music video social network, on Thursday announced it would partner with several music and lyrics publishers — including Universal Music, Warner Music and Taihe Music — to get access to more than 10 million copyrighted tracks.

The move will boost digital copyright protection and the development of the online music industry in China, Douyin, also known as Tik Tok, said in a statement.

 It’s also the firs time publishers at the level of Universal and Warner have authorized domestic short-form music video providers.

China's short-form video industry, led by players such as Douyin and Kuaishou, has about 202 million users and that figure is expected to hit 512 million by 2020, according to researcher China Insights.

Douyin, which uses artificial intelligence, was the most downloaded iOS application globally in the first quarter of 2018. 

Douyin is working with other industry players to promote new talent and has so far put 80,000 original pieces from 14,000musicians on its platform.