Tweet to the beat: Twitter music app soon

London: Twitter will launch a music-specific app later this month, following its acquisition of hipster music discovery service We Are Hunted late last year, according to a report by CNet.

We Are Hunted charts trending artists and tracks, letting users stream music and share recommendations through mobile and tablet apps, and website. Part of Twitter’s strategy to refocus on specific media products, a Twitter Music app would be launched for iOS devices, according to CNet, allowing users to follow their favourite artists and songs and share recommendations with friends.

Staff at We Are Hunted have been tweeting tests using the hashtag #nowplaying for a month. The trial app has included a short tour, links to “suggestions” and “popular” and an emerging artists section. Follow an artist and the app brings up their Soundcloud biography and track previews on the iTunes Store.

Music is one of the most powerful genres for Twitter, with seven of the top 10 most followed users in the music industry. Justin Bieber recently pipped Lady Gaga to the top spot with 35.9 million followers. Gaga has 35 million, followed by Katy Perry with 33.5 million and Rihanna with 28.8 million. Twitter Music joins a highly competitive digital music sector with a keen audience, but few services even at the scale of Spotify with its six million paying subscribers succeeding in both making a profit and satisfying artists.

Twitter has been refining its commercial model, rolling out promoted trends, promoted tweets and promoted accounts, and may be able to leverage its significant scale and network of third-party services to generate revenues from commission on ticket sales or paid downloads. Twitter declined to comment.