Twitter tries music again with new features on Vine

Steven Loeb · August 28, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3fce

Users can now edit music organically into their Vines, as well as discover new tracks to include

It has been a while since Twitter really tried to do anyting with music, ever since its last experiment in that space, the doomed #Music, failed over a year ago. 

Now the company is getting back on that horse, announcing the launch of Music on Vine on Thursday night, a set of new features that will harness the power of music, allowing users of the service to incorporate it into their creation. 

Vine, of course, is the six second long video recording app that Twitter bought back in 2012.

"Music has been part of Vine’s culture since the beginning. From rising musicians who entertain us to creators all over the world who remix andhypnotize us with their collaborations, we see time and again that when artists turn Vine into their stage, their talent reaches far beyond the app," the company wrote.

"Now, we’re connecting you to the music you love, starting with this release which lets you discover and create with music on Vine."

One of the new features is called Snap to Beat, and it essentially allows users to set their videos to music.

It works by choose a song, which the feature will then cut the song and video to fit what it calls a "perfect loop," meaning one where it's impossible to tell when it ends and when it begins. Users also have the ability to edit the audio manually, choosing which part to play over and over. 

This is a big step forward for Vine, since, until now, any music incorporated into the videos had to be played as it was being shot.

"To date, our creation tools have focused on the visual components of your Vines. By focusing on how your Vines sound, you can make better Vines, and share new music for the world to uncover," the company wrote.

Of course, it also wants to make it easier for users to find music, so it is adding in a feature to make it easier to discover music on Vine, including adding a section with Featured Tracks. 

It is also allowing people who watch the Vine to see what song it is, rather than having to either Shazamit or try to Google the lyrics.

hese stories, and so many others, inspire us and more than 200 million people* who watch Vines every month. New music discovery features are available tomorrow (Friday, August 28) on iOS and Android, and the creation tools are available on iOS.

The music discovery features will becomes available on Friday on iOS and Android, and the creation tools are already available on iOS. 

In addition, Twitter also revealed a new metric for Vine: there are now more than 200 million people who watch Vines every month.

These new features, which are being embedded into a pre-existing service, will likely do a lot better than Twitter's last attempt to incorporate music, its #Music app, where the ultimate point seemed to be to get music that artists themselves recommended onto Twitter.

It's #NowPlaying feature allowed users to see the songs that had been tweeted by the artists and people they follow on Twitter. Another feature, called Suggested, analyzed the artists a user followed, in order to recommend songs it thinks they might like.

Users could also listen to music from artists that other artists follow. For example, if someone was following rapper Wiz Khalif, users could then search his name, then tap one of the artists Khalif is following and then start listening to their music.

It allowed subscribers of Rdio and Spotify to log in to their accounts and stream full tracks through Twitter. The app premiered right after Twitter bought music discovery service We Are Hunted.

(Image source: vine.co/music)

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