AceShowbiz - Simon Cowell has joined forces with TikTok to launch a new talent discovery programme. The 63-year-old music mogul - whose show "The X Factor" was responsible for discovering One Direction and Little Mix among other huge talents - has teamed up with the video-hosting service and Samsung for "StemDrop", which will see music producer Max Martin pen a new pop song and invite millions to produce their own version of the tune and upload it to the platform.

"I've got a real-life example to use - 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'. That song was written for TLC, but TLC turned it down. I had a group signed to me at the time, Five, who were on the verge of breaking America," Simon told The Sun newspaper.

"I got a call from Arista Records in America and they played me Hit Me Baby down the phone. I was like, 'Oh my god, this is it', so I called Max Martin, who wrote it, and I said, 'Max, I've just heard this demo. Please give it to me for Five.' "

"And he went, 'I can't, I promised it to Britney Spears'. I went, 'Who? Trust me, Max, nobody's going to have a hit with a name like Britney Spears. Just think about it, please.' Twenty four hours later he came back and said, 'No, I'm going to give it to her', and that was it."

"But I think that song would have been a hit for anyone. I knew it would have been a hit for Five, it would have been a hit for TLC, it was a hit for Britney Spears. There have been country versions, alternative versions. It was just a hit song, no question about it, and having that first hit song is the most important part of an artist's career, and also the most difficult part of breaking anyone's career."

"So this really is at the heart of the idea of StemDrop - just imagine somebody who is on TikTok, trying to get some traction, who now has the ability to make their own version of a song written by the most successful songwriter of our time. It's very compelling."

"StemDrop" will officially launch on October 26 on TikTok, with creative direction from Simon's Syco Entertainment. A 60-second song clip will drop and users will have access to the stems - vocals, bass guitar, and drums - and can then create their own unique versions of the tune.

Max - who has produced Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" and Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" among other big hits - has teamed up with Savan Kotecha and Ali Payami for the first "StemDrop" song.

"StemDrop" co-creator Tim Van Rongen said, "I'm thrilled to be part of the next step in talent discovery. I feel it's the exact right moment to launch a music project where the creative process is fully in the hands of the creators on TikTok."

"I can't wait to see what everyone will come up with and think that the world will be surprised by the enormous creative variety that StemDrop and the TikTok community will deliver."