OurTunes: What do you think of iTunes “Ping” social network?
Ping is Apple’s new iTunes-based social network, but did we really need a new social network? Let’s see.
Every tech company has attempted to secure a foothold in social networking, but Apple is late to the party. The tech giants have finally entered the fray with Ping, a new social network for discovering what music your friends are listening to and following the artists you enjoy. Built into iTunes 10, Ping is a new way to discover music and connect with people who love it as much as you do.
I use the word “new” reluctantly because Ping doesn’t do anything that we haven’t already seen in MySpace or Last.fm. However, iTunes ranks among the most popular music apps, iPods are the most popular MP3 players, and winners are sometimes crowned by the number of eyeballs they garner. How does Ping measure up?
Privacy
Ping requires an Apple ID or AOL account. Users then enter a self-description, select three genres that they like, and choose how they wish their data to be displayed. Easy to understand privacy settings? What a novel concept.
Prediction/Connections
Ping lacks the personalization and user-centered touch that has become commonplace in social media. There is a way to invite friends to join, but not a simple means to discover current friends who have already joined. I was also disappointed to see that the recommended people to follow don’t share my musical tastes and the “Artists We Recommend You Follow” section is static with famous musicians that I don’t care to know. Sorry, Gaga.
The Stream
There’s a recent Activity section featuring status updates from artists with comments and likes from other users. It’s basically your Facebook friend stream, only the whining has been replaced by band photos. This all makes for a disappointing first experience.
Other Features:
- Concerts – The next time Lady Gaga comes to town on her mega-tour, you’ll know about it.
- Profiles – See the type of music that other people like. You can begin following those people and use them as a resource for discovering new music.
- Reviews – Add your opinion on an album or song and friends will be able to read what you think. Likewise, you can see reviews from people whose opinion you trust.
- Charts – iTunes is already known for charting the most popular downloads, but Ping allows users to centralize that feature. Ping Charts will show the most popular songs and albums among people you follow (best when you follow several people).
Conclusion
Ping is fundamentally flawed because it created something that we never needed. Last.fm has already built a dedicated community with better features and is more accessible (Ping is available only in iTunes and in iOS 4.1).
However, it does have potential. Say what you will be Apple, but the company routinely builds products that people adopt. If Ping can attract more “regular” consumers and not just the enthusiasts who connect on other music networks, it could prove incredibly useful. Ping is of practically no value today. But tomorrow, with the right feature enhancements, it could be another victory for Apple.
Have you joined Ping? Do you plan to join? Let us know in the comments section.
I just wanted to let everybody know that Ping also works on iOS 4.02. Go to the iTunes app and look at the bottom menu. Ping will be right there!
I already didn’t like iTunes because of how slow and bloated it was, this im sure will make it worse.
However, I am bias as I have a Zune and they have had the Zune Social for several years now. A cool feature the Zune has is that you can wirelessly connect to another Zune (although this is hard to do as the Zune did not fare well in Canada and the ‘marketplace’ is not be available in Canada until the WP7 is released) and send your friends songs. I recommend checking out the Zune software and comparing it.
If Ping works similar to how the Zune Social works (by the sounds of it, it does), then yes, it will be cool, but totally unnecessary. The Zune Social had potential because of its ability to transfer files from device to device wirelessly, something Ping lacks.
First you have to build the shell with a few features, gain some interest and keep building. Apple wants to capture it’s audience “birds of a feather flock together” as it were. Spend all your time and money here while we dissect you.
BTW: that would be No & No to your questions.
I like the idea of Ping because it is more mainstream. iTunes is almost as popular as Facebook. This will make it so that I can use the friend features of a music site. iLike and LastFm are great ideas, but no one I know actually uses them, so I can’t get music recommendations from my friends. Just browsing random artists doesn’t usually yield as many things that I like, because I am kind of picky when it comes to music.
[...] Originally Posted by elkyelky What exactly is ping? Seriously, what does it do? This should help you understand what ping is… OurTunes: What do you think of iTunes “Ping” social network? | Sync Blog [...]