Music legality and streaming have been hot topics, especially at the annual SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas. This week it was announced that Twitter and Rhapsody have joined forces so users can now stream full-length tracks on the app even if they don’t have a subscription.
This feature can be made possible due to Twitter’s audio card, which allows users to stream audio directly from their tweets.
Any Rhapsody user–the service has more than 2 million of them–can share any song from the site’s repertoire to Twitter. However, it only works through the app. If you’re opening the audio card from the web, it will only give a 10-second preview of the song.
This is a good marketing move by Rhapsody, as they’re looking to increase its membership. Currently, the music service has fewer paid users than its competitor Spotify. Rhapsody is also promoting itself on each card with a “learn more about Rhapsody” button.
We like to call this co-marketing, or an opportunity for two brands to work together on promotional efforts with a co-branded offer. Both companies promote content/product and share the results.