TikTok’s influence has permeated nearly every industry, but its impact on how people discover and consume music is especially profound. In an era defined by internet-driven listening and interaction, TikTok has propelled the music industry to new heights.

TikTok is banned in the United States. The company is Chinese-owned, and the fear is that the app is acquiring data about American citizens that could be used by the

At this moment, millions of American TikTok users are contemplating bidding adieu to the viral video app that has been their source of entertainment, news and community, or even income, for the past several years.

TikTok has dramatically changed music discovery and marketing -- a reliance the looming US ban on the popular app has underscored as the music world braces for an unknown future.

It is true that the ban, running under the legislation titled "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act," has run on the grounds that the app poses "a national-security threat of immense depth and scale," according to the U.S. Justice Department .