Back in April, Twitter launched its #music service. Through the iOS app, users could discover new music via four different ways, #NowPlaying, Suggested, Emerging and Popular. The app would show what sort of music is trending, thus allowing users to discover new and popular tracks. Merely six months down the road, it is being rumored that Twitter is “strongly considering” killing the #music app. The rumor comes from AllThingsD, which cites multiple sources “familiar with the matter.”
Apparently Twitter is currently revamping its music department, and there’s no concrete timeframe available in which the app is going to be killed off, though the decision about it biting the dust has been “nearly sealed.” It is said that after the initial spike following its launch, user engagement and downloads have been “abysmal.” When it was launched, the app noticed a spike in its iTunes Store rankings, it went as high as the 6th slot on the overall free downloads chart, but since then it has slipped down. Various app analytics companies give different rankings for the app, but its no where near the top ten anymore. Rumors of an impending shutdown come just one month after Twitter #music playlists were integrated into Spotify and Rdio, but if this report is true, then its likely that the move wasn’t able to ramp up user engagement, at least to a point where it would have convinced Twitter to not shut #music down.