Ahh, music, that essential motivator that helps us finish projects, relax or come to terms with life's ups and downs. Music has helped us connect with one another since the dawn of time , and remains one of the most talked about topics on Twitter.
Twitter is incredibly successful as a micro-blogging platform, and users are taking advantage of the vast community to share more than just tangent thoughts or blog updates. Twitter is already integrated into popular services such as Mog, Last.fm and Pandora, but a number of new tools are popping up that are tailored specifically to the Twitter experience. Thanks to creative innovations over the last couple years, there is a new wave of micro-sharing, granting a great deal of utility to favorite trends such as #nowplaying. Below are 10+ tools for sharing the music you listen to and connecting with others who share your interests.
Tunebirds
Tunebirds is pretty straight-forward, allowing you to search for songs or artists, then share the song through Twitter immediately or add it to your playlist. Songs you share are added to the public Tunebirds Timeline, helping music lovers connect with one another.
Crunch.fm
This simple service aims to make your tweets more musical. Like other services on this list, search for a song or artist to listen, and then share your favorite songs with your followers. The #nowplaying hashtag is automatically added.
twt.fm
This website is a little different from the rest in that it lets you use your own MP3 link, YouTube or Soundcloud in addition to searching its music library. twt.fm will then generate a special page using your twitter design, which you can tweet to your followers.
song.ly
This super-simple website lets you search for a song, and then tweet it using a pretty shortlink. It comes with browser plugins or website buttons for quick sharing, and can also be connected to apps such as Statuzer, PowerTwitter, Tweetie and Twittelator Pro.
twusic
The twusic website takes advantage of the #nowplaying hashtag to show you what friends are listening to, find new contacts and build a free streaming radio station. You can tweet directly from the app or use the hashtag from anywhere and twusic will add the songs to your "musicline." If you want to show off your playlist on your website, they have a slick widget for that, too.
TinySong
Tinysong is a service from Grooveshark, offering a massive music catalog where you can find almost any artist or song. There's not much more to it - just search, listen and Tweet it. Tinysong also supports Facebook, Tumblr and StumbleUpon.
Full Services
Just about every major music website supports Twitter, but a few stand out for their vast catalogs or excellent functionality and ease of use.
MySpace Music
Formerly called "imeem", a social media web site for streaming, uploading and sharing music, MySpace Music has one of the largest music databases on the internet, boasting popular, indie and global artists. Many of the services on this list use this library to serve up free tracks, and despite MySpace floundering as a social community, it has grown in popularity for music sharing since acquiring imeem in 2009.
blip.fm
Connect your Twitter account to blip.fm for free access to millions of songs, your own playlists and DJ station, a real-time feed of music shared by your friends across supported networks and one-click sharing.
Exfm
This beautifully designed web app offers exploration and a really nifty trending overview via a visually driven interface. Connect all of your social media accounts to quickly share or syndicate your favorites, playlists or recommendations. Portable apps are available for Chrome, Tumblr and your mobile phone, and exfm fully integrates with Bandcamp and Soundcloud, making it an excellent choice for promoters, bands and artists.
Hype Machine
The Hype Machine is a music discovery and sharing website that aggregates songs and artists shared by blogs connected to the service and across Twitter. Rate, save, listen and share your favorite tracks with seamless login to Twitter, or download their mobile app for sharing on the go.
The SixtyOne
The SixtyOne is a completely unique experience, and while it is almost nothing like any other service on this list, it is worth a mention for the sheer joy and discovery it offers music lovers. Anyone can rate and share songs, and with a free account you can make recommendations of your own to promote your favorite artists or your own songs.
These are just a fraction of the astounding number of music sharing apps out there. Know of an impressive site for sharing music with Twitter? Let us know in the comments!
This is a guest article by Vail Joy, a professional writer, designer and developer with a vibrant background in music business, photography and social media. When she is not contributing her expertise to blogs and e-zines, she is building HTML websites and slaying dragons for Obox Design.
Photo credit: BigStockPhoto
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