Twitter Audio Card Delivers Music Option

Twitter has unveiled its new ‘audio card’, which will allow users to play music, podcasts, and other audio direct from their timelines.

This is the second attempt at music for Twitter, after it launched its own music app (Twitter #Music) back in April 2013 in a partnership deal with Spotify, iTunes and others.

Soundcloud Partnership

The new Twitter music option however is a result of a new feature designed in partnership with Berlin-based audio-streaming service SoundCloud.

The microblogging giant revealed the development in a blog posting, which details how users can use the Twitter Audio Card to listen to music directly in their timeline, on both iOS and Android devices.

“Throughout your listening experience, you can dock the Audio Card and keep listening as you continue to browse inside the Twitter app,” said Twitter. ‘Docking’ means that the music will continue to play as the users utilise the mobile Twitter app, browsing timelines etc.

Twitter pointed out that it is launching the new audio card in partnership with third-party streaming services (currently SoundCloud), but hopes to add more partners at a later stage. Currently, Twitter users will be limited to the music and audio from SoundCloud’s partners, which includes the likes of David Guetta, Coldplay, and even the Washington Post and NASA.

“We’re just beginning to test the Audio Card and plan to make it available to more partners and creators in the future so that many more musical artists and creators will be able to share exclusive, in-the-moment audio to millions of listeners on Twitter,” it said.

Twitter also revealed a partnership deal with Apple.

The deal incorporates iTunes (@iTunesMusic) and allows users to listen to, and buy, selected unreleased content directly from iTunes. This option is being touted as a way to connect fans to exclusive music content, and gives artists the ability to promote and share new content. Currently, one song is available on this service (‘Something from Nothing’ by the Foo Fighters).

Second Time

The Audio Card however is the second attempt at music for Twitter, after it launched its own music app (#Music) back in April 2013 in a partnership deal with Spotify, iTunes and others. However, it cancelled it in March 2014. It was used more for music discovery than music playback.

Music streaming has become increasingly popular in recent years. Spotify is probably one of the most recognised music streaming service, but some well known tech firms are also involved.

Google in May 2013 revealed the first-ever Google Play music subscription service that allows users to access all the music in Google’s collection on the fly and add it to their personal collections.

What do you know about wearable computing? Take our quiz!