Right in line with reports from earlier this week, Twitter this morning officially launched their new #Music service, along with a free iPhone app and web interface. The new service integrated with iTunes, Spotify, and Rdio, and recommends music based on Twitter friends, as well as accounts that you follow in your time line.
The app was unveiled on Good Morning America, and announced on the official Twitter blog:
Today, we’re releasing Twitter #music, a new service that will change the way people find music, based on Twitter. It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists. It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app.
The songs on Twitter #music currently come from three sources: iTunes, Spotify or Rdio. By default, you will hear previews from iTunes when exploring music in the app. Subscribers to Rdio and Spotify can log in to their accounts to enjoy full tracks that are available in those respective catalogs. We will continue to explore and add other music service providers.
Tapping on a song or artist featured in the app will allow Spotify and Rdio subscribers to scream the song directly within the app, or purchase the track or album from the iTues Store. ABC News shares some details on how the app works:
So what does the service do? Well, it does what you might expect from a music app from Twitter — it helps you find music that’s popular on Twitter and music based on the bands you follow. The app is centered around four pages or tabs, which you can swipe through to access.
The Popular page shows you new music that’s trending across Twitter while the Emerging tab shows “hidden talent found in tweets.” While those two parts feed you information about what the collective Twitterverse is jamming to, the last two focus on who you follow and your personal music taste.
The Suggested tab shows artists you might like based on the artists you follow on the service and who they follow. And finally the #NowPlayingtab shows songs your friends are listening to or tweeting about. For instance, if your friend tweets that they are listening to a song by Justin Bieber, that song will show up on that page.
The app looks and feels pretty well – I’ve been using it a bit this morning, and can honestly say this is an app I can see myself using on a regular basis. Twitter #Music is available now through the web at music.twitter.com, and is available for the iPhone as a free download from the App Store.
- Twitter #Music for iOS (App Store link)
- Music.Twitter.com
