Twitter To Kill The Music App Nobody Knew It Had

News is now leaking that Twitter is on the verge of killing its #Music app, as the company revamps its music strategy in preparation for its IPO. Some of you reading this are probably saying to yourselves, “I didn’t even know Twitter had a music app!”, and that’s the whole point. The company didn’t do much to promote it, which leads to some interesting speculation.

#Music was launched in April and actually had a reasonable first week or so, but usage dropped like a rock after that, getting no traction from the early adopters and no buzz to bring in other users as a result. The app was based upon the infrastructure of We Are Hunted, a company that Twitter acquired that specialized in new music discovery, which was to be the trademark of #Music. But sometimes things don’t work out as planned, as Twitter made two strategic mistakes with the app.

First of all was timing. Introducing #Music in April might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be a very flawed decision. While not knowing exactly what the corporate thinking was, it would seem that the plan was to get some action in music to spike their IPO a little (which was still unannounced at the time). By having a successful music product, the assumption might have been that it could’ve went to market with that additional feather in its tail and goosed its opening share price as a result. But would that really have mattered? I’ve read valuations of anywhere between $10 to 20 billion that are expected once the IPO is launched, so would a successful #Music really have added much more? 

In retrospect it would’ve been better to wait until after the IPO to launch a music app, as it could’ve ridden on the coattails of all the publicity already being generated. Plus, there would’ve been extra cash to invest in the project to flesh it out more if needed. Read more on Forbes.

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Twitter Jumps Into The Music Discovery Game

Twitter Music Test Tweet

Music rumors at SXSW keep swirling, and the latest one is that Twitter is getting ready to enter into music discovery thanks to their recent purchase of We Are Hunted. WAH scoured the web to find new artists that didn't necessarily have much visibility, but fit with your playlist tastes.

Once again, music discovery is the holy grail for most of the deep pockets in the industry, and a startup with any kind of working discovery technology is bound to find money or be purchased in no time. The reasons?

• Music discovery means it's easier to find new acts that fit the listener's tastes, which grows the industry.

• More new artists means less reliance on old catalog for the labels as a revenue generator.

• Being found by a discovery engine makes it a lot easier (or even possible) for a new artist to jump out of pack of hundreds of thousands of releases every year.

• Bottom line: a healthier industry with increased revenue streams, which hopefully benefits everyone, although the big dogs always seem to benefit the most.

On the surface, Twitter seems the perfect delivery vehicle for music discovery. Imagine that you tweet that you're listening to something and add a few hashtags to indicate same. The discovery engine reads that, finds a match of new artists, and tweets you back. If it knows what your music delivery platform is choice is, the links are to that platform. This is just speculation on may part, but seems like it would be a great way to implement it.

The leaks about Twitter Music (the name of the new standalone app) are different though. It will stream from Soundcloud, and have a number of tabs for song selections. Suggested recommends songs based on your tastes, #NowPlaying brings in song links from people you follow on Twitter that use hashtags, Popular brings in the current trending songs, and Emerging tracks up and coming artists.

The fact that it's linked to Soundcloud is interesting, since it's more of a storage platform than a delivery service. First of all, will artists and songwriters get paid? Who determines what songs can be used by Twitter Music? What happens if your songs are hosted but you haven't registered?

Supposedly there will also be links to iTunes previews, but there's no info about connections to other services yet. Of course, everything but the purchase of We Are Hunted are well-placed rumors reported by several insiders (check out CNET for more), so much can change before the service is even launched.

All of this means that music delivery and discovery is getting a lot more exciting. There may be some questions about Twitter Music at the moment, but it's a welcome addition to our music world.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.