Apple's Ping - a capsule review | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Apple has ditched the CD in the iTunes logo, upgraded its iPod range and revamped Apple TV, as we learned last night. Chief executive Steve Jobs also upped Apple's social media game with Ping – a music recommendation and sharing feature that has been added to the latest version of iTunes, iTunes 10.
Users with an iTunes Store login (there are 160 million of those worldwide, and they are the engine behind Apple's money-making content machine) can now click the 'Ping' tab in iTunes, create a profile and begin following and being followed by like-minded music fans.
However, initial reviews of Ping have not been flattering. No-one I follow had a good word to say about it:
@Moleitau: OK, Ping is terrible so far *apart* from being able to follow Rick Rubin and find out he digs Arvo Pärt
@Matt B: wow, Ping's personal artist follow recommendations are terrible.
@scobleizer: "The Who." Fail. "Beatles." Fail. "Elton John." Fail. Just what kind of musician IS in Apple's iTunes Ping? @myspace wins.
@DamoBiddles just downloaded iT 10 and 'ping' - monstrous. buggy. evil. Also seems weird being built into an application UI. not great so far.
Photo by striatic on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
A music-orientated social network is a great idea because Apple has a captive and very active audience among its iTunes user base. Privacy settings are simple – share everything with anyone, share a bit with people you approve or don't share at all. Where Twitter is all things to all people, Ping could become the default network for music chatter – gig reviews, album recommendations and so on – one of those niche social networks we thought might take off a few years back.
But there are problems, and not just that recommending Katy Perry and US to everyone is not a good idea. At startup, you can only pick three genres of favourite music; I picked singer-songwriters, blues and alternative. Where would you classify Katy Perry under those? Because that's what I was served up. Those of us used to Last.fm, among others, expect far more from music recommendation.
It is a strange experience using a social network locked within a tab of an already-busy programme. If I wasn't already (occasionally) using iTunes for music there would be zero incentive for me to use Ping at all. And I use iTunes more for apps than music... where's the social network for apps?
Apple's modus operandi seems fundamentally opposed to the nature of social networking, which is all about openness. Without importing existing networks from Twitter or Facebook (inviting friends through Apple Mail is not enough), there's a significant investment of time needed to set Ping up. Now social networking is more mature, there's less appetite for putting in that groundwork – and why should we have to when our networks already exist? Look at the success of Twitter, built on third-party development and off-site interaction. Ping could have pulled in existing intelligence about artists and public profiles of followers. It could have populated user profiles with your most listened-to tracks; a few album covers aren't enough for data-loving music fans. It could have thrown up the most listened to or downloaded tracks through iTunes in real-time. Buy Songkick or something, FFS. Where is everybody?
It's static, detached, and outdated. Perhaps we'll revisit it when it grows up.
A poor effort, Apple.
Users with an iTunes Store login (there are 160 million of those worldwide, and they are the engine behind Apple's money-making content machine) can now click the 'Ping' tab in iTunes, create a profile and begin following and being followed by like-minded music fans.
However, initial reviews of Ping have not been flattering. No-one I follow had a good word to say about it:
@Moleitau: OK, Ping is terrible so far *apart* from being able to follow Rick Rubin and find out he digs Arvo Pärt
@Matt B: wow, Ping's personal artist follow recommendations are terrible.
@scobleizer: "The Who." Fail. "Beatles." Fail. "Elton John." Fail. Just what kind of musician IS in Apple's iTunes Ping? @myspace wins.
@DamoBiddles just downloaded iT 10 and 'ping' - monstrous. buggy. evil. Also seems weird being built into an application UI. not great so far.
Photo by striatic on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
A music-orientated social network is a great idea because Apple has a captive and very active audience among its iTunes user base. Privacy settings are simple – share everything with anyone, share a bit with people you approve or don't share at all. Where Twitter is all things to all people, Ping could become the default network for music chatter – gig reviews, album recommendations and so on – one of those niche social networks we thought might take off a few years back.
But there are problems, and not just that recommending Katy Perry and US to everyone is not a good idea. At startup, you can only pick three genres of favourite music; I picked singer-songwriters, blues and alternative. Where would you classify Katy Perry under those? Because that's what I was served up. Those of us used to Last.fm, among others, expect far more from music recommendation.
It is a strange experience using a social network locked within a tab of an already-busy programme. If I wasn't already (occasionally) using iTunes for music there would be zero incentive for me to use Ping at all. And I use iTunes more for apps than music... where's the social network for apps?
Apple's modus operandi seems fundamentally opposed to the nature of social networking, which is all about openness. Without importing existing networks from Twitter or Facebook (inviting friends through Apple Mail is not enough), there's a significant investment of time needed to set Ping up. Now social networking is more mature, there's less appetite for putting in that groundwork – and why should we have to when our networks already exist? Look at the success of Twitter, built on third-party development and off-site interaction. Ping could have pulled in existing intelligence about artists and public profiles of followers. It could have populated user profiles with your most listened-to tracks; a few album covers aren't enough for data-loving music fans. It could have thrown up the most listened to or downloaded tracks through iTunes in real-time. Buy Songkick or something, FFS. Where is everybody?
It's static, detached, and outdated. Perhaps we'll revisit it when it grows up.
A poor effort, Apple.
