B-Sides: Twitter #music app has the one-up on Myspace

When the new Myspace first emerged as a good way to find and listen to music, I was a big fan of the new site. Its interface was sleek and easy to use, and I could listen to full songs and albums for free.

One problem: the company didn’t create an accompanying app for the site, which struck me as a bizarre and obvious mistake. At the time, I thought Myspace must be working on an app.

Well, it’s too late now, because Twitter just came out with its new #music app and site, which essentially takes the same basic formula for finding and listening to music as the new Myspace but integrates it with the Facebook platform and corresponds with a mobile app.

The site and app itself are pretty simple. Users can choose from one of five categories, each resulting in a page of thumbnails of songs and artists: Popular, Emerging, Suggested, #NowPlaying and Me. Popular and Emerging are self-explanatory. Suggested is a page of artists you might like – I’m not sure how the app decides which artists to feature on this page because the page was virtually absent of music I listen to. #NowPlaying is the most Twitter-esque page; it’s the songs or artists that are currently trending on Twitter.

The feature which most seamlessly integrates with Twitter, and is therefore the strongest portion of the new site, is Me. That page takes all the artists you follow on Twitter and puts their music on a convenient page for you.

Pretty cool, right? Here’s the problem: you can only listen to the iTunes previews of the songs. Or you can click on the “Play Full Tracks” button, which prompts you to sign in with either Spotify or Rdio. Now, I don’t have an Rdio account, but I was told I needed a Spotify Premium (not free) account in order to hear the full tracks.

And that’s where the site lost me. If users are fine just hearing the previews of the tracks and then going elsewhere to hear the full song, then fine. If users already have a paid account with Rdio and Spotify, that’s fine, too. But for a lot of music fans who don’t have paid accounts to these two services, this will be a major roadblock.

Myspace should send Twitter a thank-you letter for this feature, because it has left the door open for a new Myspace app to offer free listens to full tracks. Twitter’s decision to only play previews is especially baffling considering that the rest of the site is pretty well put together, and could easily threaten Myspace – if not for the fact that you basically have to pay to listen to full tracks.

So, here’s what I recommend. Use the Twitter app to find new songs, new artists and new albums. Then go to Myspace and listen to the full music for free. Using a combination of both services will help you take advantage of the improved new music features and Me feature on #music while avoiding the pitfalls of having to pay to listen to full songs.

And if Myspace doesn’t hurry up and get an app of its own out on the market soon, it will be another huge wasted opportunity for the site.

Do you prefer #music or the new Myspace?

Email Bain at [email protected].