Apple introduced yesterday a new version of iTunes. iTunes 10. It is a better software and it is going social. But it's raising so many questions and observations in my mind
- Ping is the first social network to exist only in a software (iTunes). Can a social network exist out of a browser? Can a social network exist in a place where most of the usage is about transaction and download?
- Popular social networks became popular because they were built as a platform, not only as a destination (think Facebook connect, Last.fm distributed graph, Flick widgets,..). Will Apple consider an API?
- Every user has a Ping profile URL (here is mine) : Apple made them as friendly as iTunes songs URL. meaning unfriendly. Maybe they should use my friend loic's ping.fm shortener
- Do people really care about the taste of people they don't know? Is music a strong vertical enough to build AGAIN your social graph? Isn't your "taste graph" just a sub graph of your existing "social graph".
- A lot of people seem to indicate that apple made the right choices in terms of privacy settings. Actually i believe most people don't care
- What's really missing in ITunes is a out-of-iTunes broadcasting mechanism. There is Share with Facebook/Twitter but it is painful. Apple has all the assets to create the very best sharing experience (think about cross app sharing for example). They did not do it. Because Apple's DNA is not social and is not about sharing.
- I said it in the past, will say it again. iTunes "rebranding" to iTunes 10 is a missed opportunity to assess iTunes as the leading media store (video, podcast, games, apps, shows AND songs). They should have rebranded it iStore
- Real names, connected to Ping will now be used in Reviews. Since your name is associated to a credit card, you'd better watch out to fake reviews :)
- Lady Gaga who is #1 in Twitter follower is probably also #1 in Ping. I am afraid Ping will be good for mainstream music discovery only. Eg: Keith Jarrett is not even an artist to Follow...The problem of discovery is not about hits, it is about the long tail
- Ping will come to other media (podcast, movies, apps). But not until it makes its way on music. Maybe.
Bonuses.
- iTunes has not solved the biggest pain to discovery: the browsing, speed/experience and search. More than a social network they should have started there.
- Example to point 11: iTunes search engine does not work holistically with Ping's user. You can't be searched in iTunes own search engine...
- Ping's execution is awesome and simple: but it looks so much like Facebook feed that i wonder why Apple did not give more credit to that and even if Apple did not build Ping out of a missed opportunity with Facebook.
- Some people seem to indicate the death of last.fm and spotify. I seriously doubt it. Those 2 services provide a way better discovery experience and are built as platforms, not just softwares.
- Apple has nnot enabled notifications on ping. no way to know when you have a new friend following or a new artist feed mention. You need to actively go and discover it
- I really want to thank Apple for making our life easier at Appsfire: social discovery is the key to apps, more than advertising. people start to understand that what we make, makes sense :)
- you can't share your own library on Ping. A smart move would have been to prepopulate my profile with my existing library. Since everything is already there. you can only share what shows up in iTunes Store!