If you haven’t heard, Twitter #Music is now up – the web service and the iOS app.  But what is Twitter #music?  What does it actually do?

Twitter #music

It’s a new service from the microblogging site that would help Twitter users find great music.  In short, it’s a music discovery service.  It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to deliver  the most popular tracks and emerging artists, as well as  artists’ music-related Twitter activities.

Basically, the service delivers songs that are based on who you follow on Twitter.  For instance, if you follow a certain band on Twitter, Twitter #music delivers the band’s latest song released, or most popular song based on other Twitter users’ activity, as well as anything related to the song or the band.

You can listen to songs on Twitter #music via iTunes, Spotify or Rdio, and you can also tweet songs right from the service.  You can listen to 30-second song previews, but with Rdio, you get to listen to the full song.

You can see trending songs, emerging artists, suggested artists, #NowPlaying, and the artists you follow when using Twitter #music.  You can also get additional information about the songs or artists by tapping or clicking on the artist’s avatar.  If you want to find something new, you can do a quick search via the search icon and it shows you the artist/band/song you are looking for, as well as related artists/bands/songs.  Sharing a song you just discovered is as simple as tapping on the spinning disc on the lower left corner of the screen, which opens a player, and from there, you can tweet it.

The service is now available in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand and will make its way to Android and more countries in the future.

So that’s the downside of Twitter #music, it’s not widely available.  So what if you want a music discovery app?  What are your other options?

3 Twitter #music alternatives

SoundHound

This $6.99 app may be better than Twitter #music, as it recognizes music based on singing and humming.  So if you don’t know the title of a song you just heard, but you managed to catch some lines and can sing or hum it, the app rummages the interwebs to find that song for you.  It also delivers real-time Facebook and Twitter updates from the artists of your choice and if you like singing along to songs, it also has LiveLyrics in which the lyrics move in time with the music.  Additionally, it allows you to discover free song streams, new artists, new songs and much more with SoundHound Headlines.

Discovr Music

For $1.99, you’ll be able to discover bands that are similar to what you like, listen to song previews, watch Youtube videos, read artist bios and tweets, buy music, and share music via Twitter or Facebook.  Discovr Music is an interactive map of the music world that shows you how songs you like are connected to other songs or artists – this makes it easier for you to find songs or artists you might also like.

Timbre: The Free Live Music Discovery App

But if you’re the type who only enjoys live music, then this app is for you.  This is a location-based music discovery app that helps you find live music or concerts playing near you.  Or if  you’ll be visiting a new town or city, it can also tell you where the live gigs will be.  This app now has a calendar feature that saves the date of concerts so you’ll never forget to attend them.