Spotify-Tinder Hookup Adds Music to Romance

Spotify and Tinder said Tuesday they are hooking up to give people a little extra help in the dating game, by adding music preferences to the matchmaking application.

As they swipe through the app looking for love interests, Tinder users can now tap into Spotify too -- using music to help show who they are, and find like-minded souls.

"Tinder, now powered by Spotify, not only gives you the capability to show your favorite artists and music preferences, but also to pick the anthem that defines you, listen to other people's anthems and maybe make a little music with someone new," the popular dating app said in a statement.

"It's that one single track that tells your story," Tinder said of its "anthem" concept.

"That one song you can't get out of your head. Where the lyrics of your life meet the rhythm of your soul," it added with flourish.

Tinder already suggests potential matches based on swiping preferences, mutual friends and common interests.

"With Spotify, we're fully integrating music into the swiping experience in a brand new way - at a massive, global scale," Tinder founder and chief executive Sean Rad said of the match-up.

Anyone connecting to Tinder can play song previews on people's lists of preferred tunes, but users' Spotify accounts need to be linked to the service to reveal common tastes in music, the companies explained.

Spotify's website claims more than 40 million subscribers as of this month.

Some 27 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 reported using online dating, up from just 10 percent in 2013, according to Pew Research Center survey results released early this year.

Much of that growth comes from the use of mobile applications like Tinder, which has gained a reputation as a "hookup" app.