Find out what music people on Twitter are listening to
Twitter #Music is a music discovery app which gives you real time information about what people on Twitter are listening to. You can use the app to follow your favorite artists and find out who they follow in order to discover new music to listen to.
What does Twitter #Music do?
Twitter #Music integrates with iTunes, Rdio, and Spotify, allowing you to listen to what you discover. You can listen to just 60 seconds of a tune via iTunes but if you are a subscriber to Rdio or Spotify you get the whole thing.
There are different filters in Twitter #Music that display different types of artist and song:
- Popular - latest tracks from chart-topping acts
- Emerging - largely unknown artists that are being increasingly talked about on Twitter
- Suggested - artists you might like (based on what artists who you follow are listening to)
- #NowPlaying - tracks tweeted by people you follow
How easy is Twitter #Music to use?
The user interface of the Twitter #Music iOS app is very easy to get around. Each filter displays a neatly organized series of thumbnail icons to represent each artist, displaying the @ Twitter address of the group or singer. You simply tap on the thumbnail, the box will expand and you can then listen to the track (or a preview of it) by clicking the play button. You can start following the artist with a simple click on the Twitter logo within the box.
Switching between the different filters is as easy as swiping the screen to the side, or selecting it from the drop-down options at the top. A search function allows you to look for particular artists then follow them or listen to their tracks.
How does it perform?
Thanks to its eye-catching artist thumbnails, which are arranged so neatly, Twitter #Music is very easy on the eye and it makes you want to pick the app up and start exploring straight away.
The 'Popular' and 'Emerging' filters offer a way to find out what's hot in the mainstream and indie music spheres at the moment and for this it is fine.
For discovering what you might like to listen to, however, Twitter #Music is flawed in some ways. The 'Suggested' filter works off of recommendations from artists that you're already following. So, if you don't follow many artists on Twitter it's useless. Of course, you could start following lots of artists but then these will show up in your Twitter feed and you don't necessarily want to hear all their ramblings every day.
The '#NowPlaying' filter is perhaps even less useful. It shows you tracks based on what the people you follow on Twitter like. But who's to say the people you follow have the same musical tastes as you. For example, if you use Twitter mainly for work rather than to hook up with friends, you've probably got no interest whatsoever in what they listen to.
It would have been nice to have the ability to filter by genre in Twitter #Music, as you can do in iTunes, Rdio or Spotify. But since such a feature isn't included, you aren't able to filter out any awful tripe that you don't want to listen to.
A limited musical experience
Twitter #Music looks nice and is easy to get around. It can be a handy way to broaden your musical horizons, especially if you have a Rdio or Spotify subscription because you can listen to whole tracks.However, Twitter #Music is very limited in the sense that recommendations are pretty arbitrary and can't be filtered precisely as with other music discover services.
