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Twitter is taking another shot at the entertainment industry with its new investment, Muzik. Announcing its new venture at CES 2016, Twitter shares that this is a socially-driven headphone company. What this means is that their Muzik product comes with wireless headphones that pair with their Twitter app. Users will have to assign specific hotkey commands through swipe or tap. In doing so, users are able to catalogue and discover new music by swiping the buttons found on the headphones. Apart from this, they will be able to share clips of songs they have been listening to on different social networks by simply using the buttons. With Twitter partnering with Muzik, it could easily be expected that their social network will be directly integrated into the headphones. Other things that can be accessed through the Muzik headphones include images from Google Street View, weather, time, and the user’s location.
Some of Muzik’s wireless headphones will be put on display on CES this week. For starters, they will be showing off a high-end set of headphones that can potentially compete against the more expensive Beats products from Apple. This specific model has been in development since 2012 and is reported to start shipping in May for a total cost of $299. A version of the headphones was first showed off in 2013 before it went into further refinement leading to a delay in the launch. And finally, the developers behind Muzik believe it’s ready to be launched this year. The company is also working on a second model which they plan to release at some point in 2016. This will be an in-ear model, which is planned to be released later in the summer for $199. Right now, there is no option available to buy the device before their reported release dates.
Back in March 2015, Twitter closed its #Music discovery service after failing to make sense to its users. Despite this, the company has continued to invest money into four different companies through its Twitter Venture arm. One of these investments is in Muzik; a which has been able to raise $18 million in just a couple of years. This, however, is Twitter’s first venture into hardware.