The Day The #Music Died: Twitter To Shut Down Its #Music App Just Six Months After Launch: Report

The days of Twitter’s #music app are numbered. According to a report in All Things D, sources say the social media giant is “strongly considering” shuttering its #music mobile application just six months after its April launch, due to “abysmal” app store download and engagement numbers.

There’s no exact timetable for when the app will cease to exist, and nothing has been confirmed, but sources tell All Things D that the app’s fate is “nearly sealed.”

According to All Things D, Twitter is revamping its music department. In April, things looked significantly brighter. The #music app was ranked number six in the iTunes App Store for overall free app downloads after it launched to much fanfare and publicity.

In the ensuing months, however, those numbers began to slip. All Things D says the Twitter #music app was ranked at 1672th place at the end of August by app analytics company Onavo. AppAnnie, another app analytics company, places Twitter #music at 264^{th as of} Oct. 19.

In a blog post announcing the launch of Twitter #music, Twitter said the app “uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists. It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app.”

Six separate tabs labeled “Superstars,” “Popular,” “Emerging,” “Unearthed,” “Hunted” and “#Nowplaying” enable users to navigate the #music app. As Gizmodo points out, Twitter #music is a separate app on iOS.

Twitter #music culled its songs from iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. “By default, you will hear previews from iTunes when exploring music in the app. Subscribers to Rdio and Spotify can log in to their accounts to enjoy full tracks that are available in those respective catalogs. We will continue to explore and add other music service providers,” Twitter said in the blog post.

In a review for Rolling Stone in April, the #music app was deemed “splashy and fun,” but also a “work in progress.”

Apparently, it never advanced beyond that stage. As All Things D reports, Twitter #music was spearheaded by Kevin Thau, its director of mobile business development. It was built by the same team behind “We Are Hunted,” a San Francisco-based music startup that tracked the most popular songs on the Internet.

After Thau left Twitter in April, some say the #music app, which already needed work, was never properly integrated into the company’s overall strategy, All Things D said.