Looks like those Twitter Music rumors were true. Twitter announced today that it will be launching its new "Twitter #music" service both online and with a new iPhone app. The service allows users to find music that's popular on Twitter as well as tunes from bands that users are already following on the service. Twitter #music features integration with several popular streaming services, including Rdio, Spotify and iTunes. Users signed up for Rdio and Spotify will be able to listen to full songs, while iTunes will serve up previews only.
Along with playing back music, Twitter's new service aims to help users find new artists to listen to. Twitter #music will display the artists that a band or performer is following on Twitter, which could help users to discover new acts that they might enjoy.
As I mentioned before, Twitter #music will be launching both as an online service and with an iPhone app. ABC News describes the app as having a "clean and polished design." There are four navigation tabs built into the Twitter #Music app, including a Popular tab to show music that's doing well with users as well as a Suggested tab that'll be filled with artist recommendations based on performers that a user follows. There's also an Emerging tab that'll show artists that users might have never heard of before and a #NowPlaying tab that will show songs that a user's friends are listening to or tweeting about.
Twitter says that both the its new online #music service as well as its iPhone app will be available later today in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The service will expand to Android as well as to more countries later on.
While I'll have to wait to get some hands-on time with Twitter #music before making any final judgments, the service sounds like it could be a good way for regular Twitter users to listen to music from their favorite artists and discover new bands as well. The integration of Rdio and Spotify will be nice for the customers that are already signed up for those services, and it'll be interesting to see if Twitter #music can help to push some new subscribers to those companies. What do you all think of Twitter #music so far? Does it sound like a service that you'll check out once it's available?
UPDATE: The Twitter #music iPhone app is now live in the App Store. The app is 18.2MB in size and requires iOS 6.0 or later. It can be downloaded right here.
