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Zedd performing live in 2013, but now his fans can buy his album on Tinder
Zedd performing live in 2013, but now his fans can buy his album on Tinder Photograph: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
Zedd performing live in 2013, but now his fans can buy his album on Tinder Photograph: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Swipe right to buy: Tinder starts selling music with discounted Zedd album

This article is more than 8 years old

Dating app is experimenting with music download sales, shortly after driving more than a million fans to watch artist Jason Derulo’s latest video

In 2015, you can watch news on Snapchat, watch comedy clips on Spotify, and send money to friends in Facebook Messenger. So the news that you can now buy albums on Tinder shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

Well, album in the singular. Tinder is selling the latest album by dance musician Zedd, in what looks like an experiment for an expansion of advertising (and shopping) within the dating app.

Zedd has a fake profile on the app that – if fans swipe right to approve it rather than left to reject it – takes them to a link to buy his True Colors album for $3.99 – half its price on other download stores.

According to Adweek, this is not a paid advertisement, but part of Tinder’s experiments to see how its app might be used officially to promote TV shows, films and music as well as other brands.

EDM star Zedd is the second musician to benefit, following a test involving singer-songwriter Jason Derulo earlier in 2015. In April, Derulo got his own profile on Tinder, and when fans swiped it right they could watch the YouTube video for his Want To Want Me single.

At the time, Forbes reported that more than 1.1 million people had swiped to watch in three days, with 14% of them – more than 150,000 people – tapping through to Apple’s iTunes Store where the single was being sold.

Zedd’s label will be hoping that his appeal to the young singles (well, mostly singles) on Tinder will spark a surge in sales for True Colors, which was released on 21 May.

Meanwhile, Tinder’s partnerships with entertainment companies could provide a new source of revenues for the dating app, alongside the Tinder Plus premium subscription tier that it launched in March.

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