Twitter Deals For Charts

Starting in May, Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts are expected to continuously update lists of songs being discussed and shared on Twitter in the U.S., which would be published on Billboard’s website and Twitter feed.

Both companies seek to capitalize on the popularity of music discussion and artist Twitter feeds, which account for seven of the 10 most popular accounts on the social media service, according to the New York Times.

Twitter has struggled with its attempts to exploit music-related traffic, according to the paper, and the deal comes in the wake of the failure of its #Music app, which flopped after being released with much fanfare last year.

The #Music app was removed from the Apple app store a week before the announcement of the deal with Billboard. Twitter said the app would cease to function after April 18.

“Twitter realized it should instead turn the conversation about music on its service into a different kind of value,” James McQuivey, a technology analyst at Forrester Research, told the Times. He added the deal “gives Twitter an authoritative, or more formal voice in the industry rather than the informal role it has played until now.”

The Twitter charts will monitor top tracks by popular artists and “the most talked-about and shared songs by new and upcoming acts,” according to a statement quoted by the Times, while filtering out negative mentions.

For Twitter, the deal partners a music brand that happens to also have the deep-pocketed funding of private equity owner Guggenheim Partners, while Billboard gains a toehold in Silicon Valley as it reorients itself away from industry news and toward celebrity and lifestyle coverage.