TikTok Ventures Deeper Into Music With New Sound-Editing App
Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

TikTok Ventures Deeper Into Music With New Sound-Editing App

TikTok is continuing its foray into the music industry by testing a new sound-editing app for musicians and creators called Mawf.

The Culver City-based video-sharing app and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, are currently beta-testing the sound-editing tool throughout Europe and the U.K., Business Insider reported Wednesday.


Mawf transforms users’ vocals and other audio inputs into instrumental sounds like trumpets, saxophones and flutes. A series of levers allows users to modify the sounds, which are sourced from the machine-learned analysis of recordings by professional musicians, according to the app’s website. Music production platforms, such as Ableton Live and Logic Pro, can integrate Mawf’s features as a plugin, which allows users to incorporate the app’s audio into their projects.

TikTok’s experiment with Mawf comes after the social media firm launched its own music distribution platform, SoundOn, last month. The platform lets artists directly upload their music to TikTok and earn royalties when that music is used in videos.

TikTok has carved out an increasingly influential role in the music business, with the video-sharing platform popularizing music by new and established artists alike and launching several successful music projects. “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical”—which originated as a TikTok passion project—won this year’s Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, March, while pop star Olivia Rodrigo took home the Best New Artist award after her hit song “Drivers License” was featured in more than 1.4 million videos on the app. TikTok also recently backed its first musical theater production, “For You, Paige,” which premiered last week in New York.

What Are LA’s Hottest Startups of 2021? We Asked Top VCs to Rank Them

Despite — or in many cases because of — the raging pandemic, 2020 was a great year for many tech startups. It turned out to be an ideal time to be in the video game business, developing a streaming ecommerce platform for Gen Z, or helping restaurants with their online ordering.

But which companies in Southern California had the best year? That is highly subjective of course. But in an attempt to highlight who's hot, we asked dozens of the region's top VCs to weigh in.

We wanted to know what companies they wish they would have invested in if they could go back and do it all over again.

Read moreShow less
Ben Bergman

Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.

https://twitter.com/thebenbergman
ben@dot.la
Looking to Build a Granny Flat in Your Backyard? Meet the Firms and Designs Pre-Approved in LA
Design, Bitches

Adding a backyard home in Los Angeles is now nearly as easy as buying a barbecue.

Homeowners who for years have wanted to build a granny flat in their backyard, but dreaded the red tape, can now choose from 20 pre-designed homes that the city has already approved for use.

The shift, made official last week, will speed up a weeks-long process and bring more badly needed units to an overpriced market. It also has the potential to elevate the 14 startups and firms building the next generation of homes.

Read moreShow less
Sarah Favot

Favot is an award-winning journalist and adjunct instructor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously was an investigative and data reporter at national education news site The 74 and local news site LA School Report. She's also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2011 and holds a Master's degree in journalism from Boston University and BA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

RELATEDTRENDING
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA