pictures should be pulled from a facebook wall or twit pic API then, not some mundane image uploader which for the majority of bands will go untouched or unupdated
I agree but I think Apple has not quite given up on the idea of Ping. iTunes is in fact the ideal place for artists to share their activities, a role once held by MySpace but is increasingly fractured among many services.
I believe Apple is trying to establish iTunes as the go to place for all music related things. You can follow your artist in your own library. That's a pretty good way to do it. I doubt Apple can beat Twitter like they tried to in Ping -- artists aren't going to update their thoughts to two or more competing services -- but with photos, there really is no well established place. Creating an easy to update photo service reserved for iTunes artists that they can share to their Twitter and Facebook feeds could become the go to place for artists to share.
Steve's genius was that he made products for himself not for the money. He loved music and his enthusiasm is missed. Eddy Cue needs to build relatioships with artists and encourage the popular ones to share photos. Their managers and promoters will take care of updating concert dates and other info, but its the personal moments in an artist's life that people like to follow and are what makes Twitter successful. If today's popular artists start sharing their day to day photos on iTunes, it's going to become big real quick amongst all the other artists trying to reach those same heights.