Twitter has announced that it is closing its #music discovery service.

In a statement on the social network, it said: "Later this afternoon, we will be removing Twitter #music from the App Store. If you have the app, it will continue to work until April 18.

"We continue to experiment with new ways to bring you great content based on the music activity we see every day on Twitter."

The move was first rumoured last October by some American websites.

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We continue to experiment with new ways to bring you great content based on the music activity we see every day on Twitter

Twitter Music statement
The #music service was launched last year after Twitter bought the We Are Hunted music discovery app, originally launched by an Australian music start-up.

However, the music-sharing product ran into trouble a week after it launched when founder Kevin Thau left the company.

After an initial surge in downloads, by October it had dropped to 165th place in the free music apps category on iTunes, according to AppData.

The #music app gave users artist and song suggestions based on who you followed on the micro-blogging site.

Followers could also stream tracks in-app through other services such as Spotify and iTunes.

It's thought Twitter is trying to integrate music into its core service rather than through a separate app with Bob Moczydlowsky now in charge of the firm's music team.

Last month, it partnered with music industry company 300 Entertainment to share music data.

The company also signed a deal with Apple last year to produce a trending playlist station for iTunes radio and already adds playlists to Rdio, another online music service.