The Musical.ly Shutdown Was More of a Rebrand — Here’s What Happened to the App

After about four years of stealing the spotlight, Musical.ly, an app that lets users incorporate music, lip-syncing, and style all rolled into one short clip, was shut down. However, unlike platforms like MySpace, Musical.ly wasn't exactly "dead to the world," even though it might have seemed that way.

Launched in 2014, Musical.ly grew to over 100 million active monthly users by 2018. It was clearly thriving, gaining more attention and traction, so why did it shut down? Let’s break down the logistics.

Musical.ly didn’t exactly "shut down," but instead merged with TikTok, which would go on to become one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, right behind Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. In essence, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, took over Musical.ly, absorbing its users and content.

Musical.ly, founded by Alex Zhu and Yang Luyu in Shanghai, caught the eye of ByteDance, a digital content giant from China, in 2017. The company acquired Musical.ly and described the deal as a "merger," according to Variety. At the time, Musical.ly was valued at around $800 million by some sources, and as much as $1 billion by others. By 2018, ByteDance had fully merged Musical.ly into TikTok.

While many of the interface features changed, the core concept was largely folded into what TikTok is today. Some notable differences? The "For You" page was originally called the "Feature" page on Musical.ly. It also had a leaderboard with the top "Musers" of the day — something that’s no longer around, along with the term "Musers" itself.

Musical.ly not only contributed to what TikTok is today, but it also helped launch the careers of some pretty famous people, some of whom are still going strong. Among those who became famous on Musical.ly are Ariel Martin, widely known as Baby Ariel, Jacob Sartorius, Loren Gray, and Kristen Hancher. Much like Liza Koshy, who rose to fame on Vine (which was eventually shut down but didn't stop her from becoming successful), these Musical.ly stars found success beyond the app.

Baby Ariel has garnered over 36 million followers on TikTok and over 1 billion likes, so it’s safe to say that the "cancellation" of Musical.ly didn’t hurt her. And she still occasionally posts content similar to what she shared on Musical.ly.

Jacob Sartorius is also doing big things on TikTok, with over 23 million followers and more than 1 billion likes. Looks like the Musical.ly merger with TikTok worked out well for him!

Coming in with over 53 million followers and 3 billion likes on TikTok is Loren Gray. Clearly, she was onto something when she was active on Musical.ly, and her fans continued to support her when she transitioned over to TikTok.

Another star who continued to grow from their Musical.ly following and translate that fame to TikTok is Kristen Hancher, who has now amassed 23 million followers on TikTok.

Although Musical.ly was essentially shut down, its merger with TikTok, which follows a similar structure, allowed many of the stars it made famous to continue on and become widely known influencers.