Musical.ly (pronounced "Musically", styled as musical.ly) was a social media service headquartered in Shanghai with an American office in Santa Monica, California,[1] on which platform users created and shared short lip-sync videos.

[2][3] Through the app, users could create 15-second to 1-minute lip-syncing music videos and choose sound tracks to accompany, use different speed options (time-lapse, fast, normal, slow motion, and epic) and add pre-set filters and effects.

The app also allowed users to browse popular "musers", content, trending songs, sounds and hashtags, and uniquely interact with their fans.

[7][8] Before launching Musical.ly, Zhu and Yang teamed up to build an education social network app, through which users could both teach and learn different subjects through short-form videos (3–5 minutes long).

On November 9, 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musical.ly Inc had been sold to Bytedance Technology Co., which operates the program Toutiao, for as much as US$1 billion.

[15] At first, the musical.ly features were still present on the TikTok app, including crowns (musical.ly's unique verification system), page categories, and duets.

They also got rid of page categories and started implementing many other features, including LIVE broadcasts, favorites, reposts, stitches, voice effects, filters, and more.

[citation needed] As a result of the merger, Alex Zhu, the CEO of Musical.ly, became Head of Product for TikTok at Bytedance.

The platform also enabled editing, through 14 pre-set filters and effects that allow a change in speed or reversing the motion of the recording.

Additionally, Musical.ly also had a feature to create shorter videos, named "live moments", which were essentially GIFs with music.

In this regard, Musical.ly had an option called "Best Fan Forever", through which users can select certain followers who can participate in duets with them.

On January 28, 2016, Business Insider released a survey, in which "10 of the 60 [interviewed teenagers] listed Musical.ly as the app they were most excited about.

Jacob Sartorius, who later became a social media influencer, promoted his first single "Sweatshirt" on Musical.ly, after which the song reached number 10[22] on the iTunes Store.