Apple still struggles with social
September 13th, 2012
Lost among all the glossy photos of the new iPhone, Apple quietly announce the closure and failure of Ping, their social network targeting music fans. Ping was built into iTunes and thus only accessible when you were using iTunes on your computer or other Apple device.
Now in 2019 I believe you can share a song on social media from inside iTunes but I’m not sure I’ve ever done it. I tend to share a YouTube video and or while living in China I used QQ Music. But in 2019 iTunes may finally get replaced as some think the app has gotten too big.
Still using iTunes
iTunes got a make over in 2012, but I can’t see much real difference. iTunes Match or iCloud whatever the proper term is for keeping your music in the always available network cloud is now working pretty well. I noticed it is set to auto-renew, but I can disable that feature. Some few tracks couldn’t be uploaded, one example being a track off the Beavis and Butthead album where I removed Beavis and Butthead from the intro or outro, other tracks iTunes Match doesn’t like for unknown reasons. Of more annoyance, some of my smart playlists, particularly those that are recursive, (ie playlists made from other smart playlists) won’t upload either.
Still using Last.fm
On a decent Internet connection playback once started is smooth, but running iTunes and Last.fm slows down the rest of my programs a tiny bit. I’m still not sure every scrap of meta data is getting synced and shared, I know I still lose play counts when I sync my two older iPods and I lost a bunch of meta data moving my collection around before.
Still using Apple Ecosystem
I’m generally a satisfied Apple customer, but I’m not sure why they keep creating specialized social networks. Game Center is supposedly more successful than Ping, but with all the social networks out there and all the music sites, surely there is one Apple can partner with or acquire. Does it need to be a made at Apple solution, does it have to run WebObjects? If it does like I said I’m available. I’ve even worked with the iTunes Music Store API and a host of other social APIs.
In 2019 I not only overhauled my blog, including editing every single blog post, I’ve also continued to remain loyal to the Apple Ecosystem including using iTunes, iTunes Match, and an iPhone. I even got an iPad. All the cool kids may be using Spotify but I continue to buy music and use Last.fm to show off my stats I don’t even have iTunes Radio. I even continue to keep my playlists secret. My number one priority is finding a new job, that is the reason for the major website overhaul, but I’m not sure search engine optimization, especially of old posts about Apple computers.
If you have any thoughts on the Apple ecosystem, iTunes, or sharing your musical tastes online you can leave a comment below.
This entry was originaly posted on , it was last edited on and is filed under: Technology and tagged: Apple, Game Center, iTunes, Online Social Networks, Twitter.
