Twitter gets a celebrity chorus for new music discovery service

Twitter is expanding, with the imminent launch of a music service (Getty Images)

Twitter is expanding, with the imminent launch of a music service.

The social networking giant has given US celebrities a preview of the new service, hoping they will do the promotional work by tweeting positive reviews to their millions of followers.

Among them was Ryan Seacrest, the host of American Idol, who duly obliged. "Lovin the app," he tweeted to his 9.6 million followers. "Shows what artists are trending, also has up and coming artists."

Rumours emerged last month that Twitter had bought the We Are Hunted app, as part of its work on developing a music discovery app.

Twitter has now confirmed that it has bought We Are Hunted, which finds the most popular songs trending across the world.

The AllThingsD website reported that Twitter Music would suggest artists and tracks to users, based on indicators including who they follow. Users will be able to listen to clips of the music and watch videos from within the app.