Twitter Inc launched a stand-alone music-streaming app on Wednesday, opening another front in the micromessaging service’s ambitious expansion into multimedia content.<\/p>\n
The iPhone app, called #music, will recommend and stream songs based on who users follow on Twitter and artists’ recommendations. The songs will be streamed via Rdio and Spotify, the subscription-based music services, and iTunes, Apple Inc’s music store.<\/p>\n
Twitter said in its blog-post announcement that #music will be available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand beginning Thursday.<\/p>\n
A release date for the Android app has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n
In a blog post, Twitter’s engineers said the new service “uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists.”<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
The new app, launched four months after Twitter unveiled Vine, a stand-alone video-sharing app, is meant to reinforce Twitter’s position as a fully functional multimedia hub, particularly in the eyes of teens and young adults.<\/p>\n
In its early years, Facebook Inc gained popularity by allowing its service to be integrated with YouTube and music-streaming apps like Spotify. And Apple, Google Inc and Amazon Inc have all recently held talks with music industry executives about entering the music streaming business.<\/p>\n
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