Social networking site Twitter is expected to launch a new music discovery application this weekend, while Apple is reportedly finalising deals with major labels before entering the streaming music space to take on Spotify and Pandora, which are a growing threat to the iTunes Store.
There’s a fortune to be made in distributing digital music. Apple demonstrated this with iTunes when it became the biggest seller of downloadable music last decade. Now, however, the landscape has changed and the two new buzzwords in music are “streaming” and “discovery”. Apple and Twitter are paying attention to both.
Apple’s arguably held off from entering the streaming space for as long as possible in order to avoid cannibalising its lucrative iTunes downloads business. But with services such as Spotify and Pandora, among others, winning over consumers with their subscription-based streaming offerings, Apple’s music ownership model is looking dated.
Dubbed iRadio by the media, Apple has reportedly been in negotiations with Universal Music Group and Warner Music around licence agreements for streaming. The new service, whatever it’s called, is supposed to work as a music discovery tool, one that Apple will be hoping will boost music purchased for download, and looks set to have a streaming component to fend off the attacks of the numerous streaming services that have emerged in recent years.
Twitter, meanwhile, is also about to launch its own music service. It’s said to be launching a standalone music app this weekend. The app will be a music discovery service that recommends artists and tracks based on information gleaned from Twitter, including the artists a user follows or tweets about.
AllThingsD reported on Thursday that users will be able to “listen to clips of music from inside the app, using third-party services” such as iTunes and SoundCloud and will be able to watch videos provided by Bebo, the music video service owned by Universal Music and Sony.
This imminent launch comes after Twitter confirmed it had acquired music discovery site We Are Hunted, whose website now reads “We Are Hunted has joined Twitter” and goes on to explain that its employees are working on a new project for Twitter.
“While we are shutting down wearehunted.com, we will continue to create services that will delight you, as part of the Twitter team. There’s no question that Twitter and music go well together.”
Music.twitter.com allows users to sign up with a pop-up asking that they authorise “Trending Music Web” to access their Twitter accounts. It’s been reported that the new service may be launched during this weekend’s Coachella Festival, an annual music event that takes place in California. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
