Twitter expected to launch music service this weekend during Coachella

12 Apr 2013

The fabled music service that Twitter is believed to have been working on is expected to go live this weekend during the Coachella music festival in the US.

The standalone music app follows hot on the heels of video-sharing app Vine, which was launched in January.

However, unlike Vine, the new music service will be a Twitter-branded affair.

Last year, Twitter acquired Australian music discovery service We are Hunted.

From what we can tell, it looks like Twitter’s new music-discovery app will be something of a cross between Shazam and SoundCloud.

According to CNET, users who sign up for the new Twitter Music service will receive personalised music recommendations based on artists they are following and artists their friends are following.

A Popular tab will show songs that are trending and an ‘Emerging’ tab will show up-and-coming artists.

In addition, the #NowPlaying hashtag will bring in links to songs tweeted by people you follow.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com