Twitter Music is now live online, which confirms the rumors that have been swirling for the past few days. Any attempt to sign into the website thus far redirects to an authorization request for an app called “Trending Music Web,” but it doesn’t grant users access to the site itself. The authorization also describes a “web version” which implies that there is also a mobile version in existence somewhere. The rumors started on Thursday, when Twitter announced the takeover of We Are Hunted, a music discovery service that creates trending charts for music being played online, and allows users to listen to discover new artists while playing their favorite tracks. We Are Hunted founder Stephen Phillips has since tweeted several playable tracks from Rdio and Soundcloud, which implies that both services may be a part of Twitter’s imminent app. Reports indicate that the formal app launch could formally arrive at Coachella.
Tag: twitter
Twitter Pulls Ribbon’s In-Stream Payments System
We reported earlier that payments startup Ribbon had launched their “in-stream” payments system for Twitter, allowing users to make purchases without leaving the Twitter environment by making use of the Twitter Cards feature launched recently. About an hour after the feature launched, Twitter shut it down, invalidating the feature. A workaround is currently in place, directing users to a ribbon.co checkout page instead, but this diminished functionality does not align with Ribbon’s goals. The startup is currently attempting to resolve this matter with Twitter.
VineTune Lets You Rock Out 6 Seconds at a Time
We learned earlier this year that 6 seconds of video can make quite a statement, and since the launch of Vine, marketers have been excited about the platform’s possibilities. Designers at London ad agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay launched a creative use of the service called VineTune that crowd sources Vine videos based on specific set of hash tags pulled from the lyrics of a song selected by the VineTune team and uses them to cobble together a music video. All of this is done with a slick visual design. Certainly advertisers will take notice and follow suit with more creative uses for the Vine platform.
Ribbon Launches Hashtag-Free Payments On Twitter & YouTube
Payments startup Ribbon, which enables purchases on social media sites, is launching new Twitter and YouTube platforms. On Twitter the service takes full advantage of the expanded Cards feature— users simply click on a “Buy Now” button and then input credit card information all within Twitter. On YouTube, the integration comes via in-video annotations, which allow you to click to purchase on a Ribbon checkout page. The conventional wisdom is that conversion rates are highest when you don’t have to leave a site to purchase, so expect Ribbon to create great opportunities for brands.
Vine Is #1 Free App
Six months after its now-famous acquisition, Vine is the #1 free app in Apple’s App Store. The app, acquired in mid-october before its initial launch, has had its share of controversy, having been pulled over adult content and thereafter relaunched. But for all the hiccups the app has not failed to generate mountains of visual content, viral media (with its new trending hashtag section), and has been used in unique ways by brands and celebrities alike. Vine’s closest competition in the social sphere thus far is Snapchat, but it’s important to note that Vine is only iOS compatible at the time of writing, which means that even more growth into the Android field should be expected.
Twitter Launches New Ad Buying Tool
Twitter, the king of social TV, geared up recently to capitalize on the second-screen advertising field by introducing an ad API. Now, in conjunction with partner TBG Digital, Twitter has launched a tool that lets marketers bid on ads on Twitter in a similar manner to programming a DVR. Brands simply select television shows along a timeline, and specify demographics or trends they wish to target. This comes in the wake of Oreo’s ground-shaking #blackout tweet during the Super Bowl, which has caused quite a stir in the ensuing months over the future of real-time second-screen advertising via social networks.
Pew Study: Twitter Isn’t Great At Revealing Public Opinion
According to a new survey by Pew Research Center, Twitter can’t be relied upon to gauge public opinion. The reaction to big national and political news on the social network differs widely from the responses to widely-distributed surveys. More specifically, Twitter reactions happen to be more Liberal than the national average; for instance, reactions to the federal court ruling the California same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional were generally positive on Twitter, while across the board they were more mixed. So what does this mean? It just means that those who Tweet, particularly those who Tweet about the news, aren’t necessarily representative of the public at large and are instad their own demographic: mostly young and left-leaning.
Twitter Announces FirefoxOS App
Fresh off its debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Mozilla’s mobile FirefoxOS now has perhaps its biggest early adopter: Twitter. Engineer Manuel Deschamps says Twitter for FirefoxOS will be available in the app store from the first day the devices begin to ship. The app mirrors the layout on other mobile operating systems, with the same Home, Connect, Discover, and me tabs. It will also support Firefox’s unique Web Activities feature, which will allow users to tweet a photo from any app that also suports Web Activities, which includes the built-in photos app.
Oscar Tweets Total 8.9 Million
In case the Superbowl didn’t prove that Twitter was the second screen of choice for most viewers, Twitter today reported that a total of 8.9 million Tweets were generated over the length of the evening: 2.1 million during the red carpet, and 6.8 million during the awards show itself. Some of the winning moments included the return of musical numbers, which included Adele’s “Skyfall” performance and award; the two events set records for second and fourth tweets-per-minute (TPM) moments, with 82,300 TPM and 64,000 TPM, respectively. Michelle Obama’s cameo presenting the Best Picture award to Argo generated 85,300 TPM, Jennifer Lawrence clocked in 71,600 TPM for her Best Actress award and ensuing trip-up, while Anne Hathaway’s Best Supporting Actress award generated a comparatively paltry 60,400 TPM.
Twitter Adds Beefed Up E-mail Security
Following a series of high profile security breaches that brought Twitter’s security woes to the fore once again, Twitter has announced that it adopted the DMARC e-mail security protocol earlier this month. The protocol works by comparing e-mails supposedly from a known sender to a record of known information about that sender, and routing the verified messages. Twitter is doing this in hopes of cutting down the number of spoofed e-mails Twitter users receive in attempts to breach accounts, but has still made no comment on more advanced measures like two-step authentication, already in use by Google, Dropbox, and others.
