Short-form video app TikTok isn't content being the center of online youth culture in Japan. Now, it's eyeing the music industry.

Earlier this month, TikTok announced a new project called Spotlight. This initiative invites users to submit original music, which will then be siphoned into a special playlist available for anyone using the app to access and add to their own creations. At some point, a panel of judges will whittle contestants down over the course of a season, with somewhere between five and 10 artists being selected as winners at the end. They'll get the chance to link up with a major label and put out music — with TikTok supporting them.

Spotlight — which will also unfold in South Korea over the course of the year — finds the flagship product of the world's most valuable startup, China's ByteDance, trying to develop music stars of its own.