Twitter Might Shut Down Its #Music App Soon

An illustration picture shows the log-on icon for the Website Twitter on an Ipad in Bordeaux, Southwestern France, in this file photo from January 30, 2013. Twitter Inc will seek to raise $1 billion in the largest Silicon Valley IPO since Facebook Inc's 2012 coming-out party, according to an IPO filing made public October 3, 2013. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

Reports that the Twitter #Music app might shut down anytime soon have been circulating lately. According to AllThingsD, numerous sources have told them that Twitter is "strongly considering killing off its Twitter #Music mobile application."

"The app's fate is nearly sealed." said sources to AllThingsD.

This move seems sudden because Twitter just launched its #Music app last April 2013. It had a strong debut, and was ranked Top 6 among iTunes' most downloaded free app.

However, its performance in the last few months after its release was lackluster and it failed to accomplish what Twitter set out to do, which is help its users to find and play songs that interest them based on who they were following in Twitter.

The #Music app's number of downloads and user engagement dwindled. From Top 6 on iTunes, it was ranked at 264 by AppAnnie as of Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013.

Even Onavo, a mobile market intelligence service, ranked the Twitter #Music app in 1,672^nd place, based on real user engagement data.

#Music is a standalone app, a separate entity from Twitter's massively popular and hugely successful microblogging site. It was reportedly built by a team led by ex-Twitter business development leader Kevin Thau. Thau's team was hired by Twitter to work on several music products. He has since moved on to another company called Jelly.

The app's goal is to help users discover and locate the music that interests them, based on the artists that they follow on Twitter. #Music assists users by recommending bands and songs that are being tweeted by people they are following. It also allows users to browse songs that are trending.

Unfortunately, the app doesn't allow users to play additional songs from artists through the site.

The Twitter #Music app faced stiff competition from Spotify and iTunes Radio from Apple.

But, all is not lost for Twitter and its goal to help spread music to its users. AllThingsD has also said that Twitter hired Bob Moczydlowsky, Topspin Media's former senior vice president (SVP) of product and marketing, to head Twitter's revamped music department.

Hopefully, Moczydlowsky can help lead Twitter to finally succeed in the music industry. It's a good thing that in the microblogging world, Twitter still rules. Only time will tell if the Twitter #Music app will soon die a natural death, or will be resurrected by Moczydlowsky's team to rival the company's success in microblogging. Will it finally trend among its users as Twitter hopes it to? We'll see.

Read more on the Twitter #Music app by clicking here.