Twitter to Release Standalone 'Twitter Music' iOS App

CNET is reporting that Twitter has acquired a music discovery service and plans to release a standalone music app. The company reportedly acquired We Are Hunted, "one of the world's leading music discovery services" according to the company's website. The site now says the service is "not available at the moment".

The app, to be called Twitter Music, could be released on iOS by the end of this month, according to a person familiar with the matter. Twitter Music suggests artists and songs to listen to based on a variety of signals, and is personalized based on which accounts a user follows on Twitter. Songs are streamed to the app via SoundCloud.

Twitter Music, which is set to arrive in the wake of key competitor Facebook overhauling the music section of its News Feed, shows Twitter taking new steps into becoming a full-fledged media company. The app acknowledges the key role music has played in drawing new users to the service -- particularly younger, mainstream users. Pop stars have some of Twitter's most popular accounts, with followings in the tens of millions. The TwitterMusic account has 2.3 million followers -- not a bad perch from which to launch an eponymous app.

Rumors of new music services have been popular recently, with Apple and Google are both reported to be working on new subscriptions services, though those efforts appear to be significantly different from Twitter Music.