Apple yesterday flipped the switch on “a new social network for music called Ping that Apple has integrated within iTunes 10 and which looks an awful lot like the experience you get on Facebook,” Kara Swisher reports for AllThingsD.
“Facebook has noodled for years about creating its own social music offering, including doing a partnership with Lala, which was bought by Apple last year and shuttered in June,” Swisher reports. “But its efforts have largely gone nowhere.”
Swisher reports, “And Facebook is nowhere on Ping, either. Currently, there is no linking, sharing or participation of any kind with Facebook–or Twitter or MySpace–on Ping, which will work only on the iTunes software on computers, iPhones and iPods. When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions went nowhere. The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted ‘onerous terms that we could not agree to.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
@ChrissyOne
U2 released albums after Rattle and Hum? Oh dear…….
@ drackmere
I know… I tried to forget about that too. >.<
So, it took quite a few posts until ChrissyOne finally got it right: Ping is about 24 hours old, and they only have very few artists who have created profiles on it. Whoever rushed to download new iTunes and try Ping was likely greeted with most, if not all available artists on Ping.
If you give it a week, I’m sure hundreds of artists will be there, and the system will be able to make somewhat smarter recommendations. In a month, it will get much better.
More importantly, it requires actual users to use it in order to become useful and relevant. And I have no doubt, this will begin very, very quickly. All those teens and college students are coming back to their classrooms/dorms, and they will welcome this Ping thing with their open arms. Facebook may be it or not, but Ping will most certainly appeal to them because it works on the same principle as Facebook (social networking), but is much simpler, focused, intuitive and effective. People will share, discuss, discover and enjoy music much more effectively when they interact with each other.
Ping is going to be huge, and Facebook is unnecessary for this.
@ Predrag
Glad to see you’re sticking with me for the long haul. ;P
I guess my usual biting satire isn’t coming off quite right today. Forgive me, I have the flu and a real rotten attitude.
My point was that maybe rather than suggesting a bunch of totally inappropriate artists to early adopters, maybe Apple should have made it a little more clear that only 20 marginal artists were yet available on Ping. That’s the sort of thing that will make people with more obscure music tastes flee and never return.
And I disagree with you about Facebook. The ability to just post a status update with an artist or a new album would have been very powerful and a way to preach to someone who wasn’t already in the choir. I have a feeling we’ll see it before long.
Finding artists is easy!
Just Ping It!
Oh wait…, damn!
Ping and Decide.
Oh wait… >.<
@macnut222- you’re probably not too far off the mark with that credit card statement…
@C1- great taste in music! Nothing like beer and desert rock to relax after a long week…
Once Ping gets a few million followers and many, many bands to follow, Facebook will come back and ask Apple to let it link in. I agree with earlier comments that Facebook probably demanded access to personal, private info, and Apple said no.
I have a Facebook page, but I’m very careful about my privacy settings and about what I post or to whom I connect. I also remind my friends/family to be careful about what they post, such as pics of them drunk at some party or discussing such activities, because potential employers look at that.
It’s amazing what people will post thinking that no one will see it. Hey dumb a**, you just put that up on the internet and told all your friends about it, but you’re surprised the video clip of you drunk off your a** and bouncing head first off the diving board got forwarded to thousands of people? Duh!
@ChrissyOne
“Rick Rubin – Seriously?”
I know, right? It’s not like he’s really done anything in the music indus- oh wait…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin_production_discography
Gee, I typed
% ping -c 10 -a Bowie
and got the answer
“100% dropped packets”
No wonder no one hee seems to like it.
facebook wanted more information on iTunes users , Apple is very private on its users and would not give out it’s information like facebook does.
@ I h8 Zuckenberg
True!
Only Apple can dictate “onerous terms.”
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I suppose that onerous terms are in the eye of the beholder…
@ Hunh?
lol… Yeah. I’m totally interested in everything he’s done. Come on… Sure, Mars Volta = Awesome. Weezer = Love ’em. He’s a totally legendary producer and all that… but for ever Weezer album he’s worked on there have been dozens of Poisons and Linkins and Shakiras and Bizkits and rap and Zzzzz….
(lighten up… I said I was kidding)
actually PING has FB connect
Actually, Apple is showing them how it’s done, most networks, Twitter, FB, MS, Youtube, don’t have credit card numbers – or many products to actually sell – strike 1,2,3, – while costing outrageous hosting fees. The whole social network paradigm was flawed from the start. Not the actual start though, because at least AOL had enough sense to get paid for doing it — and now Apple. The rest are nincompoops.
Facebook is the new AOL: a piece of total crap that has somehow convinced millions of clueless consumers that it is the second coming of Jesus.
Even though Facebook can suck, this really would’ve been a handy way to kick start Ping and get loads more people involved.
cnn comments on facebook
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/09/05/facebook.spies/
youtube regarding facebook
’nuff said.
Do you guys not like ‘No line on the horizon’ by U2??? I agree they released a lot of crap after rattle and Hum and ecven on NLOTH, half of it I do not like…but the first 4 songs. Very nice.
This is very interesting. I can believe tdirect alks broke down, terms can be tricky. But, on the other hand, you can “integrate” with both Twitter and Facebook through their API’s without much discussion. I could integrate FB “like” on any webpage through their FB Connect feature. I’m sure you have to agree to some type of license agreement that most developers would skim through, but Apple lawyers may have puked on… but given how pervasic FB & Twitter are, it still seems like a weird thing to get caught on.
ploogman, you probably use ‘monster cables’ too.
Ploogman, “Phonograph records?” Ha! Your English is SO bad! I don’t even know what that means! Obviously, you MEANT to say “graphics of phone recordings.” I’m sure someone can recommend software for that.
A Really, Really Young Guy
(Whoops. Not even that young anymore…)