Twitter's Audio Cards Now Support Spotify

Social platform Twitter and music streaming platform Spotify have a new partnership that will allow Twitter users to preview 30 seconds of a song from Spotify’s catalogue via Twitter’s audio cards. Audio Cards have been around since 2014, when Twitter launched the service with iTunes and SoundCloud.

Users will be able to play music directly from tweets and dock the tracks to continue browsing while the 30-second clip plays.

The partnership will allow both sides to attempt to shore up their weak spots — Twitter needs to become more of a social destination if it wants to compete with Facebook, and with Apple Music holding Spotify's feet to the fire, Spotify needs to find more ways to stay ahead of its rapidly growing competitor and retain users.

Both companies face significant monetization challenges — only 30 million of Spotify's 75-89 (depending on who you ask) million listeners are paid subscribers. The music streamer also made headlines this week when it was revealed that the average salary at the company was about $140,000 (without executive pay factored in) despite the fact that the company just reported its greatest losses ever.

Much of the company’s losses are due to royalties, a large portion of which pay record labels, as opposed to artists. But the company has made a name for itself as a service devoted to its listeners — its personalized Discover playlists got 40 million listeners in the past three months.

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