Twitter Music goes live with iOS app in tow

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After days of speculation, Twitter took to the popular Good Morning America show to announce the official launch of its music-discovery service. The service will launch on the web and there is an iOS app already out on the App Store. An Android app is in the works.

Twitter Music, as the service has been fashioned, is the brainchild of We Are Hunted, a startup that was acquired by the micro-blogging site last year. The app pulls music in from services like Rdio, Spotify and iTunes and uses the data from your Twitter follower graph to show you new music.

Those with an Rdio or Spotify account can sign into them from the iOS app and stream full tracks. Another option for listening to music is iTunes preview. However, at its essence, the service will be geared towards music discovery. The iOS app is rolling out across the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and users can sign up now at music.twitter.com.

Screenshots of the iOS app for Twitter Music

Twitter Music is broken into four sections: Popular, Emerging, Suggested and #NowPlaying. The first two tabs benefit from We Are Hunted’s work in music discovery to determine the trending artists, as well as indie musicians. The Suggested and Now Playing tabs work in conjunction with your Twitter feed.

When in the Suggested tab, you will see recommended songs and artists which are pulled in based on your Twitter follower data. So you are likely to see musicians that you follow on Twitter Music or on Twitter itself. It will also show artists that are being followed by others you follow. So if a friend signs up and starts following Gotye, you will get recommendations of new songs by the artist as well as any related artists.

The #NowPlaying tab, as is evident from the hashtag in its name, will bring in music that has been tweeted with the #NowPlaying hashtag on your Timeline. All in all, it seems like an interesting venture, but our attempts to fire up the service were met with failure. Perhaps, the heavy early demand could explain it.

Of course, since listening to tracks is only possible if you have an Rdio or Spotify account, Twitter Music isn’t going to draw in many more users to the platform. Apps and services like Pandora, Xbox music, Nokia Music, Deezer, Grooveshark already provide ways to listen to new music. However, the popularity of musicians on Twitter could help deliver a better discovery process.

We will be bringing you more in-depth coverage about Twitter Music. Watch this space.

Report by : Nikhil Subramaniam

Twitter Music coming right up! A login page for the service emerges

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Right on cue to corroborate rumours about Twitter Music launching at Coachella this weekend, a webpage at music.twitter.com has appeared. The sly release is nothing more than a webpage right now, but it looks like the service coming up properly is only a matter of time now.

When you head on to the webpage, you will be greeted with a blank background with “#music” standing out on the screen. There is a sign in button too, that – surprise, surprise – actually works! The app will throw up a window that typically comes up when an external app requires details from your Twitter account in order to work.

The mysterious webpage

Unfortunately, when you do authorise Twitter Music, it only redirects you back to the same page. Interestingly, the app’s name shows up as “Trending Music Web” when you’re about to auithorise it. We’re expecting the webpage to reveal a lot more over the weekend now.

While a lot of music junta is still sinking details about #music in, Ryan Seacrest has claimed that he’s already using Twitter’s music app and is loving it. The American Idol host took to Twitter to talk about the app. “playing with @twitter's new music app (yes it's real!)...there's a serious dance party happening at idol right now,” he wrote. He also mentioned what the app can do. “Lovin the app...shows what artists are trending, also has up and coming artists... spinning u now @frankturner,” he tweeted.

Twitter had confirmed only yesterday that it had acquired We Are Hunted, a popular music tracking tool that will play a huge part in the soon to be launched Twitter Music service. According to reports that emerged last month, Twitter had acquired We Are Hunted last year and had been working on building a music discovery service app ever since. The service will apparently help users discover new music based on content from their Twitter profiles, making it a slightly unique idea as compared to other services in this category.

The standalone app is all set to hit the Internet around this weekend, according to a report. It was earlier rumoured that the service will launch today itself, but it looks like the announcement might happen a little later in the weekend, even as the Coachella Music Fest is underway.

Report by : Nishtha Kanal

Apple reportedly closing deals with music labels for its music streaming service

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Rumours about Apple’s music streaming service have just become louder. Apple is reportedly close to inking a deal with Warner Music and Universal Music Group to kickstart a service where you can stream music.

Apple has been trying to offer the two record companies a per-stream rate as low as half of what Pandora gives, according to reports that have emerged over the last few weeks. A CNET report now reveals that the music service would offer new revenue streams too.

It is being suggested that the service will be connected to iTunes and will also be available on mobile devices.

An Apple music streaming service soon? (Image Credit: Audio Advice)

Apple will in all probability offer a faster way of listening to consumers, thereby potentially pushing to download sales from iTunes. The company is also mulling over adding audio ads to the service to boost revenues.

The report though suggests that nothing about the deal is final yet and could go either way. While there is a strong possibility that the deal could be inked sometime next week, sources caution that there are equal chances that they might fall through. Apple is also trying to rope in Sony Music Group to sweeten the service’s offerings too.

Apple will be aiming to make this service a summer release, although patterns suggest that the service could well be announced in June at its annual developers’ conference. The company seems keen on rolling out the service in as many countries as possible, including France, Germany, UK and Australia.

The path of music streaming in association with iTunes will be an alien one for both Apple and the music labels. While music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify have met with some amount of success, it is still fuzzy. Besides the fact that Apple will be aiming to generate revenue through advertisements, it needs to tie up iTunes in a strong way, making consumers want to purchase music legally off iTunes after streaming it.

Apple is supposedly making the service like Pandora’s by not offering on-demand listening. The company is also planning to build unique features inside the service, like the ability to jump back to the beginning of a song.

Rumours about Apple’s music streaming service have been floating around for years. Now, with bigwigs like Google’s Play Store and YouTube as well as Amazon wanting a piece of the music streaming pie, it looks like Apple has stepped up its act.

Earlier last month it was revealed that Apple was in talks with Beats Electronics LLC, the audio technology firm co-founded by influential hip-hop producer Dr Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, on a potential partnership involving Beats' planned music-streaming service.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook met with Iovine during a visit to Los Angeles in late February to find out more about Beats' 'Project Daisy', a music subscription service the company announced in January but with scant detail, the sources said.

Could Beats have an angle in Apple’s music streaming service too? We will need to wait and see!

Report by : Nishtha Kanal