Twitter tweets start to sing

Twitter on Thursday began letting people instantly listen to music and other audio by clicking on tweets from the popular messaging service.

The new Twitter Audio Card feature, launched in partnerships with SoundCloud and Apple's iTunes store, will allow users to stream audio live from the Twitter app.

Audio Card works on mobile devices powered by Android or Apple software.

"We're just beginning to test the Audio Card and plan to make it available to more partners and creators in the future," the San Francisco-based firm said in a blog post.

About 60 Twitter users were offered Audio Card at its launch -- including the White House, NASA and Coldplay -- and newly added members will be listed by @TwitterMusic.

"Many more musical artists and creators will be able to share exclusive, in-the-moment audio to millions of listeners on Twitter," it added, without saying when new users would join.

Audio Card is designed to let people continue exploring Twitter while listening to streaming music.

The launch was marked by the band Foo Fighters, who tweeted the official release of their new single, which could be heard in iTunes by clicking on a link in the message.

Song offerings from iTunes were limited at launch, while SoundCloud boasted a wider variety of audio content.

Musicians David Guetta and Chance The Rapper sent tweets from their respective profiles, @davidguetta and @ChanceTheRapper, with songs that could be played through SoundCloud.