Now, Twitter is music to your ears

The microblogging site introduces a music feature that would use the listening habits of users' friends and contacts and recommend music for them

Twitter is an online service millions of people use to chat. Now, the company behind it is hoping it would also serve as a platform to find new music.

It is introducing a music feature expected to use the listening habits of users' friends and contacts to recommend music for them, giving its 200 million-odd users more to send tweets about and another reason to be logged in. However, exactly what form the music service would take is unclear.

On Friday, Twitter set up a page on the web that was blank, except for the company's silhouetted bird logo, '#music' and a sign-in tab which, when clicked, asked users to give a trending music application access to their accounts. The wording of the page changed slightly through the day; it described an application that could scan users' Twitter feed, update their profiles and even post tweets, suggesting an ability to alert users about the music their friends were listening to.

Another clue to the service is Twitter's acquisition of We Are Hunted, which recommends new music, based on social media conversation. On Thursday, Twitter announced it had bought the company, after weeks of rumours.

Shavone Charles, a Twitter spokeswoman declined to answer questions about the new service. Instead, she pointed to an announcement by We Are Hunted that said it was shutting down its site, though it would "continue to create services that will delight you, as part of the Twitter team".

Recommendations on restaurants, shopping, etc, based on social media interactions have become common throughout digital media. Many online music services offer these features as well. Spotify, for example, can broadcast its users' playlists through Facebook. Twitter's advantage, in addition to its size, may be the devotion of its customers.

"Music is one of the most tweeted topics," said Ted Cohen, a former label executive, now a consultant to digital music companies. "Discovery is critical to the growth of music, and the new gatekeeper is recommendations from trusted sources."

On Friday, technology sites (and Twitter) were rife with speculation on what the service would offer and how it would be opened and marketed. AllThingsD reported the service would at first be open only to "influencers" such as celebrities, and for a time on Friday, Twitter's music page said it was "invite only".

©2013 The New York Times News Service