Digital consumption often involves fragmented user journeys across platforms, particularly in the music industry, where songs are discovered through social media, movies, or series and later consumed on streaming platforms. Transition and search costs create barriers that prevent seamless consumption. This study examines how platform integration mitigates consumption loss by analyzing the integration of TikTok and Spotify in late 2023. Using a natural experiment and a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework, we investigate the effect of this integration on song streams. Our results show that integration reduces frictions and amplifies inter-platform promotional effects. These findings highlight the potential for platform integration to transform digital consumption funnels, benefiting users and content creators while offering strategic advantages for platforms.
