Twones – Twitter for Music
Have you heard of Twones? The new website is currently in pre-beta “invite only” mode but we’ve taken a sneaky peak at what’s purported to be a musical version of Twitter.
Once you’ve installed a Firefox add-on the service allows you to combine the playlists and music you listen to from a variety of popular sources then share with friends. At present the list of recognized services includes iTunes, Last.fm, MySpace, YouTube and Windows Media Player among others. Equally, once you’ve “followed” someone else, you see a list of the tracks they’ve listened to along where they found them. As well as following friends or record labels there’s also the option to browse through the most played music of the day, the week or even of all time.
After you’ve downloaded the toolbar you’re able to bookmark favourite tracks across a variety of sites. This creates a link that other users can follow to hear what you’ve been listening to without having to leave the Twones site. And, best of all there are no radio style adverts. It seems that the site will be making its money by directing users through to a variety of other websites.
A column on the right hand side of Twones displays a host of information about the artist you’re listening to.
On selecting Feist’s “Honey Honey” for example, you’re presented with a link to a biography on Wikipedia, images from Flickr, video clips from YouTube and a Last.fm style list of similar artists that you might be interested in. There’s also a list of upcoming concerts (sadly none in feist’s case!) with links to a site selling gig tickets. You can click straight through to Amazon to buy the music you’re listening to and also see a list of recent mentions on Twitter.
Sadly the site is not compatible with Spotify at the moment, which is a shame considering that it’s now one of the most popular streaming services. It’s difficult to be critical, however, given the extremely early stage of development.
Co-founder Tim Heineke has big plans to improve the site over the next few weeks and increase its usefulness:
“The magic of our site begins with the Twones Tracker, which tracks all of your plays from around the web and on your computer and ties them all back to your Twones library. As long as you have your tracker-enabled browser active, all of your plays end up in Twones – ready to be organized, shared, or accessed from anywhere on the web.
The best part? Tracking is only the start. When you hit “play” in your Twones library, you are immediately connected to a world of information about that track and artist. From Wikipedia info and similar artists, to YouTube videos and Flickr pictures – Twones even gives you up-to-the-minute tour schedules and allows you to track the artist’s buzz on Twitter!
Finally, discovering new music is social, so we’ve built social sharing features into every area of Twones. If you want to discover music in Twones, just go to the “on air” section and rock out to what’s playing on the real-time web from your friends or the entire Twones community. If you want to share a song or even a playlist you made in Twones with your friends in the outside world – just hit the “Tweet” button”
If you’re quick you might be able to try the service before it emerges from its Beta cocoon; Read Write Web has posted a code that will spirit 500 of its readers past the invitation barrier.
