Twitter unleashes its #music app to the world

App suggests music based on followed artists, lets users see the music their friends are tweeting

The Twitter #music app has officially launched, it was revealed in a blogpost Thursday.

This after rumors of a Twitter music app swirled around for at least a month. Then the company bought music discovery service We Are Hunted last week, and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest revealed, via Tweet, that the music app was indeed real. The day after, the music.twitter.com webpage went up, but simply featured a sign in button that went nowhere. So, Twitter was telling us that it had a music app, even giving us a place to sign up for it... and then nothing! What a tease!

Now it's here.  

"Today, we're releasing Twitter #music, a new service that will change the way people find music, based on Twitter. It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists," Stephen Philips, founder of We Are Hunted, wrote. "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. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app."

The songs on Twitter #music come from three sources as of now: iTunes, Spotify or Rdio. Users will get a default preview in iTunes, and then subscribers of Rdio and Spotify will be able to log in to their accounts to hear the full track. More providers are expected to be added soon.

There are multiple ways to find music on the app. The homescreen breaks it down into four tabs: Emerging, Suggested, #NowPlaying and Popular.

#NowPlaying will allow users to see the songs that have been tweeted by the artists and people they follow on Twitter, while Suggested analyzes the artists a users follow, in order to recommend songs it thinks they might like.

Users can also listen to music from artists that other artists follow. Twitter gives the example of rapper Wiz Khalif: users can search his name, then tap one of the artists Khalif is following and then start listening to their music.

The app also lets users compose tweets from inside the app if they "discover new songs that you want to share with your followers on Twitter."

The Twitter #music is available on the App Store, and can be downloaded right now, and is also available in a Web version. The app is only available in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand right now, but Twitter says that it will eventually bring the service to Android and to more countries soon.

"Twitter and music go great together. People share and discover new songs and albums every day. Many of the most-followed accounts on Twitter are musicians, and half of all users follow at least one musician. This is why artists turn to Twitter first to connect with their fans — and why we wanted to find a way to surface songs people are tweeting about," Philips wrote.

(Image source: https://music.twitter.com)