Australian startup We Are Hunted has confirmed rumours it has been acquired by Twitter to create a new music discovery app for them.
We Are Hunted was started in Brisbane by Richard Slatter, Stephen Phillips, and Michael Doherty and backed by entrepreneur Graeme Wood in 2007, and designed to showcase the hottest new music tracks on the internet with a constantly-evolving music chart.
A statement on its website today confirmed it will be shutting down the service to create the new app for Twitter, the latest in its range of platforms being built into the site.
It read: “While we are shutting down wearehunted.com, we will continue to create services that will delight you, as part of the Twitter team.
“There's no question that Twitter and music go well together. Artists turn to Twitter first to connect with fans, and people share and discover new songs and albums every day. We can't wait to share what we've been working on at Twitter.”
Whilst the rest of the statement said they could not confirm what they are working on, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest has spilled the beans, ironically on Twitter.
He wrote: “Playing with @twitter's new music app (yes it's real!)…there's a serious dance party happening at idol right now”, followed by “lovin the app…shows what artists are trending, also has up and coming artists… spinning u now @frankturner”.
The move to incorporate music into the site follows the acquisition of the Vine micro-video platform earlier this year, signalling the intent of the social media network to build out its functionality.
