Key facts
- Drops shows 10-to-30-second song snippets with lyrics, album artwork, artist photos and captions.
- Clare Hunter, general manager of Drops, said the app grew out of Harman's 2023 acquisition of Roon.
- Drops pays rights holders and reports plays to partners including Universal Music Group, Beggars Group, Empire, Symphonic Distribution and UnitedMasters.
- Harman said Drops does not use generative AI for audio or visuals and uses official artwork and licensed artist photography.
- Plays on Drops count toward streams on connected streaming services, the company said.
- Drops is invite-only, with US users able to join a waitlist.
Harman, a Samsung subsidiary, launched a music discovery app called Drops in the US on November 9, 2026, for iOS and Android. The app borrows the vertical-scrolling format of TikTok but shows short clips of songs rather than videos, letting users swipe through 10-to-30-second snippets accompanied by lyrics, album artwork, artist photos and captions.
The app has tabs including For You, New, Showcase and Following, along with hashtags. Users can like, comment, repost, share and save tracks to collections called Droplists, send songs to other users, follow profiles and exchange direct messages. To hear a full track, users jump into a connected streaming service; Drops lists Apple Music, Qobuz and TIDAL among its integrations.
Clare Hunter, general manager of Drops, said the idea took shape after Harman acquired music management software company Roon in 2023. "You send a friend a song and say, 'You have to hear this,'" Hunter told TechCrunch, describing the sharing habit the app is built around.
Harman said Drops does not use generative AI for audio or visuals, and that songs appear as originally released with official album artwork and licensed artist photography. The company said the app pays rights holders and reports plays to partners including Universal Music Group, Beggars Group, Empire, Symphonic Distribution and UnitedMasters, and that plays count toward streams on those services.
Drops is invite-only, and US users can join a waitlist.