HOWTHEYWORK:Twitter may rock the music scene

POP STARS AND rappers are some of the most popular users of Twitter with millions of followers worldwide. That’s the audience that the social network may want to build on with a new Twitter Music app that will reportedly debut in the next two weeks. The move signals Twitter’s arrival as more of a media company looking to brand itself as a content discovery channel.Those who eagerly await the latest tweets from Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Justin Bieber may soon have one more reason to tie their musical interests to Twitter: The social network will reportedly use a recent acquisition to set up a Twitter Music app.Technology from the music discovery company We Are Hunted, which Twitter bought last year, will reportedly serve as the app’s foundation. Soundcloud will provide music streaming services with videos courtesy of Vevo, according to published reports.The Twitter Music app for iOS devices may debut later this month.The decision to offer a branded, standalone music app shows Twitter’s evolution into a media company, one that is slowly adding variety -- and advertising opportunities -- to a social network originally built on 140-character messages. That also means inherenting some of the challenges that go along with the territory.“This type of business depends on having a lot of people in your embedded base,” Maribel Lopez, principal analyst at Lopez Research, told TechNewsWorld. “That base is going to be important in negotiating music rights.”

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HOWTHEYWORK:Twitter may rock the music scene