Twitter #music Emerges

It’s been about a week since Twitter officially unveiled its new music app, Twitter #Music. The service is a music discovery app that allows users to listen to favorite artists, discover new music, and share recommendations with friends. And though it’s only been released so far for iPhones and Web, it’s already causing a few ripples.

Whispers of Twitter #Music began circulating in the tech and music worlds long before Twitter made its official announcement of the app last week. The app includes four panels: Popular, Emerging, Suggested, and #NowPlaying. Its goal is to be a music streaming service that is more personalized for recommendations and tips. Good Morning America described it as a mix tape for the 21^st century.

Following the image-driven trend of social media today, Twitter #Music’s panels show a grid of artists and songs that can be played with the simple tap of a finger. Playing music brings up an animation of a CD or LP spinning as if physically being played. Dragging a finger clockwise or counter-clockwise around the playing disc will fast forward or rewind a song—a feature reminiscent of early iPods with click-wheels.

Thus far, Twitter #Music has proved useful for at least one emerging band. TechCrunch reported that the Frances Cone Band saw a surge of new Twitter interactions and fans after the app was released and they were featured on the “Emerging” panel.

“It’s been really, really great,” said the group’s lead singer, Frances Cone. “I wasn’t sure how to engage followers/fans and they basically just perfectly did it for me… like they set up a meet and greet and I get to hug all of these music lovers.”

Twitter To Launch Music App

These days, it’s all about having everything you need in one place. At least that’s what smartphones, tablets, and social media sites tell us. It’s not longer about having a niche—you’ve got to have all the niches. And as Facebook moves over for other rising social media sites, we’re finding that we have a lot of choice when it comes to which site we want to use and for what.

Twitter in particular has been ramping up its game lately. Facebook recently acquired the photo service Instagram, and since then Twitter decided to launch its own photo sharing service, which is of course more convenient than Instagram. But Twitter’s latest foray raises the bar once more: they’re planning on launching a new app called “Twitter Music.”

Essentially, users who have Twitter Music will be able to stream music from SoundCloud directly through the app. They can choose music based on Twitter Music’s personalized recommendations. The app will have four different tabs for users to explore as well, including Suggested, Popular, Emerging, and #NowPlaying.

“Suggested” gives recommendations based on whom the user follows on Twitter, while “Popular” shows songs that are trending in general. Up and coming artists will be shown in the “Emerging” tab, and users can see specific song recommendations that have been tweeted using the hashtag “#NowPlaying” by people they follow.

The app, expected to be out as soon as the end of this month, is powered by We Are Hunted. Twitter recently purchased the company, which is one of the best music discovery services currently available. By partnering with it, Twitter is potentially putting itself in the same category as other popular streaming services like Pandora and Spotify (which Facebook partnered with in 2011).