Twitter seeks Head of Music Partnerships in L.A.

After launch of #Music app, Twitter looks to form relationships with musicians, labels and portals

A little over a month since Twitter debuted its #Music app, the company is now looking to expand its operations in the hopes of forming partnerships with more musicians, labels and portals to drive deeper engagement of its users on the app.

Twitter is currently looking for a Head of Music Partnerships in the Los Angeles area, according to a job posting listed on the website. 

"Twitter’s Media team is looking for a seasoned leader to shape and drive the next generation of Twitter’s impact on the music industry," it says in the posting.

"You will be responsible for devising and executing the strategies that will make Twitter valuable to the talent as well as to the operations and strategy of music labels, digital music services and events. Amongst your goals is expanding and deepening Twitter’s music footprint, developing and distributing best practices at scale and producing & stimulating innovative content among high-profile music talent, their representatives and music partners."

Responsibilities of the job include forming partnerships with

• U.S. musicians, along with their agents and managers. These include artists that are both on Twitter and those that are not.
• US music labels, with a focus on A&R, marketing and digital
• US radio, specifically Clear Channel and Sirius
• Music editorial, including Billboard, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork
• Major ticketing organizations, like Live Nation and TicketMaster
• All US music festivals
• Major digital music portals and apps, like Spotify, Soundcloud, Rdio, Pandora, Daisy, and i heart radio

Ultimately, the posting says, it wants to "develop a multi-year strategy for music" which will drive growth in the amount of music on Twitter, and the engagement of its users. 

Twitter also wants the Head of Music Partnerships to "be embedded at the highest executive levels of the music industry, and able to influence and shape your partners’ strategic planning efforts."

Presumably, this job would have gone to Kevin Thau, who was the  Head of the #Music app,until he left Twitter to join Biz Stone's mysterious Jelly startup earlier this month. Whoever fills the position will report to the Head of Media.

If Twitter wants to get deeper into the music industry, expanding to Los Angeles is pretty much a no-brainer.

What is #Music?

The #Music app helps users find music to listen to through Twitter.

The songs on Twitter #music come from three sources: iTunes, Spotify or Rdio. Users 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. 

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

The app premiered right after Twitter bought music discovery service We Are Hunted.

The job posting was first noticed by VentureBeat.

(Image source: https://www.ourstage.com)