Why did Twitter invest in a headphone company?, Here's the harder truth: Twitter, as accepted as it is, isn't authoritative money. Its shares afresh hit an best low. It seems like the aggregation is aggravating annihilation it can to break afloat. It's already angry stars into hearts. It's launched Moments, a curated annual acquaintance for new users. It's adapted into video with Vine and, added recently, Periscope. It's even searching into accretion its 140-character absolute to 10,000. And now, Twitter adeptness aswell be searching to get aback into music.
Or so it seems. Buried in the bosom of endure week's CES assault was a bit of annual that Twitter had fabricated a cogent investment in Muzik, a headphones startup. At aboriginal blush, this seems bizarre: Twitter and headphones don't assume to go together. Why would Twitter put so abundant money into something so alfresco its amount interest?
But Muzik isn't an accustomed brace of headphones. Instead of just application it to accept to music, you can map assertive buttons so that, if pressed, the accessory shares whatever you're alert to on the amusing belvedere of your best -- which, of course, includes Twitter. If you like, you can even attach a photo and a map area of area you are to actualize a "Moment."
"It allows humans to actualize these appropriate moments in time," said Jason Hardi, Muzik's architect and CEO. "It creates a beheld soundtrack of your life."
It doesn't amount what music antecedent you're alert to either. Hardi tells me that Muzik uses a Shazam-type technology to automatically admit what song you're alert to -- be it on Pandora, iHeartRadio or iTunes. Again it's able to abduction the metadata of that song and acquisition a hotlink to it from a "legal source" (which in this case would be Spotify), at which point it automatically pastes that hotlink into the tweet. Voilà: instantly aggregate music, no chaos and no fuss.
The clue to what the accord means, then, has beneath to do with Muzik's accouterments and has aggregate to do with its software.
Yet if asked about Muzik's affiliation with Twitter, Hardi wouldn't acknowledge abundant above what was already reported. He did, however, action a few cogent insights.
"We're animate on a lot of amazing things together," said Hardi. "I can acquaint you that allotment of the accord is that we're traveling to accomplish it easier for humans to affix to anniversary added and allotment music. It's traveling to affix culture."
There are a few clues as to what this all means. A few years ago, Twitter experimented with music if it bought analysis annual We Are Hunted. It launched a accomplished #Music website forth with apps for Android and iOS that promised to advice you acquisition added tunes via tweets from artists and your friends. Unfortunately, it tanked. It still relied on added casework like Spotify and Rdio if you capital to play abounding advance and, for the a lot of part, humans just didn't use it abundant for the endeavor to accomplish sense.
Interestingly, the website and annual that the aggregation acclimated for #Music is still animate and kicking. It tweets music-related annual about the apple and generally retweets new releases from artists. It aswell keeps an advancing account of Accepted Songs that are trending. Based on its connected existence, it seems to me that Twitter is conceivably at atomic a little bit absorbed in the re-integration of music into its service.
But instead of accepting its own app and service, which is financially risky, what if Twitter invested in a Muzik's Shazam-like technology instead? What if everyone, no amount what audio they're alert to, could instantly columnist a button and accept that song be aggregate on Twitter? And what if that acute audio-sensing technology was chip appropriate into Twitter itself so you don't anytime accept to coursing and beak for a URL to archetype and paste? It's account canonizing that amusing arrangement battling Facebook already has this auto audio acceptance tech chip into its adaptable app, so the abstraction isn't after precedent. It wouldn't be such a amplitude to brainstorm Twitter would wish in on it too.
Of course, the music arena is not after its perils. Rdio afresh shut down and it's not like Spotify is authoritative money either. But if we were to yield Hardi's "connecting culture" adumbration a footfall further, conceivably Twitter could parlay this Shazam tech above music, and accept it admit what TV shows or movies you're watching too. Again, there are already apps that can do this (including Facebook), so it wouldn't be hasty if this happened. And from there, ad opportunities abound.
Hardi has had acquaintance with headphones afore -- he was one of the artefact leads for SMS Audio, accurately the band of audio accouterments peddled by rapper 50 Cent. But he capital to accomplish headphones that did added than that. So he larboard to begin Muzik aback in 2013 with the ambition to, as he put it, to affix the world.
"I apperceive that sounds like a actual big aspiration," he said. "I do accept that music is one of those art forms, that has a bewitched adeptness to affix people. I wish to actualize articles that would enhance people's lives, that would accomplish it easier for them to connect."
"What we are accomplishing calm is absolutely traveling to change the world," said Hardi of the Twitter partnership.
That's a aerial goal. But, for Twitter's sake, it adeptness charge to do just that.
Or so it seems. Buried in the bosom of endure week's CES assault was a bit of annual that Twitter had fabricated a cogent investment in Muzik, a headphones startup. At aboriginal blush, this seems bizarre: Twitter and headphones don't assume to go together. Why would Twitter put so abundant money into something so alfresco its amount interest?
But Muzik isn't an accustomed brace of headphones. Instead of just application it to accept to music, you can map assertive buttons so that, if pressed, the accessory shares whatever you're alert to on the amusing belvedere of your best -- which, of course, includes Twitter. If you like, you can even attach a photo and a map area of area you are to actualize a "Moment."
"It allows humans to actualize these appropriate moments in time," said Jason Hardi, Muzik's architect and CEO. "It creates a beheld soundtrack of your life."
It doesn't amount what music antecedent you're alert to either. Hardi tells me that Muzik uses a Shazam-type technology to automatically admit what song you're alert to -- be it on Pandora, iHeartRadio or iTunes. Again it's able to abduction the metadata of that song and acquisition a hotlink to it from a "legal source" (which in this case would be Spotify), at which point it automatically pastes that hotlink into the tweet. Voilà: instantly aggregate music, no chaos and no fuss.
The clue to what the accord means, then, has beneath to do with Muzik's accouterments and has aggregate to do with its software.Yet if asked about Muzik's affiliation with Twitter, Hardi wouldn't acknowledge abundant above what was already reported. He did, however, action a few cogent insights.
"We're animate on a lot of amazing things together," said Hardi. "I can acquaint you that allotment of the accord is that we're traveling to accomplish it easier for humans to affix to anniversary added and allotment music. It's traveling to affix culture."
There are a few clues as to what this all means. A few years ago, Twitter experimented with music if it bought analysis annual We Are Hunted. It launched a accomplished #Music website forth with apps for Android and iOS that promised to advice you acquisition added tunes via tweets from artists and your friends. Unfortunately, it tanked. It still relied on added casework like Spotify and Rdio if you capital to play abounding advance and, for the a lot of part, humans just didn't use it abundant for the endeavor to accomplish sense.
Interestingly, the website and annual that the aggregation acclimated for #Music is still animate and kicking. It tweets music-related annual about the apple and generally retweets new releases from artists. It aswell keeps an advancing account of Accepted Songs that are trending. Based on its connected existence, it seems to me that Twitter is conceivably at atomic a little bit absorbed in the re-integration of music into its service.
But instead of accepting its own app and service, which is financially risky, what if Twitter invested in a Muzik's Shazam-like technology instead? What if everyone, no amount what audio they're alert to, could instantly columnist a button and accept that song be aggregate on Twitter? And what if that acute audio-sensing technology was chip appropriate into Twitter itself so you don't anytime accept to coursing and beak for a URL to archetype and paste? It's account canonizing that amusing arrangement battling Facebook already has this auto audio acceptance tech chip into its adaptable app, so the abstraction isn't after precedent. It wouldn't be such a amplitude to brainstorm Twitter would wish in on it too.
Of course, the music arena is not after its perils. Rdio afresh shut down and it's not like Spotify is authoritative money either. But if we were to yield Hardi's "connecting culture" adumbration a footfall further, conceivably Twitter could parlay this Shazam tech above music, and accept it admit what TV shows or movies you're watching too. Again, there are already apps that can do this (including Facebook), so it wouldn't be hasty if this happened. And from there, ad opportunities abound.
Hardi has had acquaintance with headphones afore -- he was one of the artefact leads for SMS Audio, accurately the band of audio accouterments peddled by rapper 50 Cent. But he capital to accomplish headphones that did added than that. So he larboard to begin Muzik aback in 2013 with the ambition to, as he put it, to affix the world.
"I apperceive that sounds like a actual big aspiration," he said. "I do accept that music is one of those art forms, that has a bewitched adeptness to affix people. I wish to actualize articles that would enhance people's lives, that would accomplish it easier for them to connect."
"What we are accomplishing calm is absolutely traveling to change the world," said Hardi of the Twitter partnership.
That's a aerial goal. But, for Twitter's sake, it adeptness charge to do just that.
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