Twitter #Music was only launched last year, but it is already saying goodbye to the app store. Unfortunately for Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR), the music service failed to acquire a user base and the buzz it needed to survive. Regarding the news, Twitter stated, “Later this afternoon, we will be removing Twitter #music from the App Store. If you have the app, it will continue to work until April 18.”
The app was designed to be a portal for users to find new music that was being tweeted about. The songs were scoured from Spotify, iTunes and Rdio. In addition, Twitter had planned to include other music providers at a later date. The app was available in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and elsewhere. Also, it was only accessible through Apple’s app store. An android version was not yet made.
One of the problems with the service was its navigation. Although you could listen to songs and follow artists the same way you would on Twitter, it just felt a lot more complicated than Spotify or Pandora. You could also watch videos on YouTube and Vevo, then purchase the music on iTunes. However, even Twitter acknowledged that they lacked the competitive edge over more established music streaming services.
Another obstacle was it displayed two sets of recommendations. One was based on tweets, and the other based upon data mined from the web on critically-acclaimed but unheard of new bands. It just didn’t offer enough breadth to users who are accustomed to much more variety.
In a separate tweet, Twitter wrote, “We continue to experiment with new ways to bring you great content based on the music activity we see every day on Twitter.”
