It was dead at birth as it was for the musicians not the customer. Started at the wrong end.
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Apple's Ill-Fated Social Network 'Ping' Launched 10 Years Ago Today
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Apple has been able to avoid that trap by making its hardware optimized instead.
Or simply tie it to Apple Music....but then it has to be good enough for people to want to subscribe as part of the pull.
I think Ping's failure was due to it just being another example of Apple completely losing interest in something that they aren't immediately successful at. The moment Facebook refused to integrate it, Apple just walked away. No grit.
It was actually a pretty nice way at the time to keep track of not just artists, but other industry insiders and journalists. For the brief moment that it was active, it was my primary means of discovering new music. In fact, I still haven't found anything quite as useful.
You can sort of get the same experience following artists on instagram, but if they want to promote a new song, you've got to go to their profile, click a link that they have to change all the time, go to whatever website that takes you to, and then hopefully the website will have an iTunes link.
It was actually a pretty nice way at the time to keep track of not just artists, but other industry insiders and journalists. For the brief moment that it was active, it was my primary means of discovering new music. In fact, I still haven't found anything quite as useful.
You can sort of get the same experience following artists on instagram, but if they want to promote a new song, you've got to go to their profile, click a link that they have to change all the time, go to whatever website that takes you to, and then hopefully the website will have an iTunes link.
And with the thick menu bar in Big Sur, they could vertically stack them and space them farther apart. A little less contrast and they’d be done.
This got me thinking ... I wonder how many of the so-called Pro Stock Analysts who cover AAPL for a living were NOT around early-on, OR are simply NOT aware that AAPL has had a whole slew of Failures !
I grew up in Silicon Valley, walking distance to AAPL's original office, whether you consider that the one in SW Los Altos @ Jobs' parents home, OR the one near where the Good Earth restaurant used to be, close to where Whole Foods now is near De Anza ... from my vantage point, AAPL has had just as many successes as failures.
Some of the things that are being Hyped today will fail, as well.
IMO, from a technology perspective, AAPL peaked with the A7 in the 5s ! ... it forced Qualcomm to hit pause, & then RE-start ... took them more than a year to recover, & that led to a good portion of the iPhone 6/6+ success !
From a Hype / Marketing perspective, AAPL peaked with the iPhone X.
To this date, the 2016 iPhone 7+ is the single-best-value iPhone AAPL has ever offered !
It was AAPL's first true High-Perf iPhone !
It took AAPL until Sept of 2019 when AAPL offered the iPhone 11 to match that in Value & Performance !
Those in the middle have what I refer to as the "Phil Schiller Chip Bug" !
I grew up in Silicon Valley, walking distance to AAPL's original office, whether you consider that the one in SW Los Altos @ Jobs' parents home, OR the one near where the Good Earth restaurant used to be, close to where Whole Foods now is near De Anza ... from my vantage point, AAPL has had just as many successes as failures.
Some of the things that are being Hyped today will fail, as well.
IMO, from a technology perspective, AAPL peaked with the A7 in the 5s ! ... it forced Qualcomm to hit pause, & then RE-start ... took them more than a year to recover, & that led to a good portion of the iPhone 6/6+ success !
From a Hype / Marketing perspective, AAPL peaked with the iPhone X.
To this date, the 2016 iPhone 7+ is the single-best-value iPhone AAPL has ever offered !
It was AAPL's first true High-Perf iPhone !
It took AAPL until Sept of 2019 when AAPL offered the iPhone 11 to match that in Value & Performance !
Those in the middle have what I refer to as the "Phil Schiller Chip Bug" !
I agree, and was coming here to post something along the same lines. It would have been cool to see some blend of Facebook/Twitter and this ping service mixed with the absolute stance on privacy they adhere to. Could have been great.
There's quite a damn few more things I'd wish he'd take that attitude with. 4 years to notice the vote on the butterfly keyboard. And still remaining: touch bar, no heat pipe and/or good heat design in MBA/P, etc etc etc
Honestly I think Pings failure was not in the customer, nor in that it was focused on music. The failure was the majority of artists barely provided updates or interacted with consumers beyond the initial month. Some continued for a few months like Sean Paul yet others just didn’t care at all!!
FB, MySpace and other social media just didn’t do anything.
music was a great idea for this:
Ask artists unique questions of their song / album inspirations, choice of voice, any collaborations and consumer suggested collaborations, video critique or suggestions. Inquire about the album cover pic (which in the age of the iPod didn’t matter much anymore - the MP3 killed LP sleeves and content within.
if nobody has noticed : artists dislike taking ANY suggestions from their fans and worse any critique. Pretty much fee they themselves are the centre of life. You have a few that engage on IG but it’s usually the same schtick:
what’s fashionable
What they recently bought
A day pic with their pet
A semi yearly pic of a collaboration with other said artist.
Big party event for the Holliday or season and who’s who that’s there,
And finally what’s HUGE in the news especially if it’s a movement cause.
wash, rinse, repeat while striking a pose.
I don’t like this guys music, Bieber, yet it’s funny that amongst so many talented artists and musicians that only He, Daryl Hall and Cee-Lo of done a big stream of playing their songs in a chill bar like environment. Bieber actually goes close to his home town near the GTA every few years or so at random with a 24hr prior announcement.
gotta say THAT is giving it to your fans. 12yrs or so ago Korn did that with a SiriousXM stream from tracks he did for Queen of The Damned. That was awesome.
Either it’s the studio limiting this or the artists. It’s a shame really.
I never understood how this was supposed to work.. I tried it, wanted to like it, but .. never really, understood what it was supposed to do
I think most social network sites are are safe and secure, the only thing apple would do is throw some kind of privacy in there
No it didn’t. It had the same feature set as it does on MacOS. In the early 2000s when we briefly switched to using Windows PCs, I exclusively used iTunes for all my burning, ripping, radio streaming (the old m3u stations), and even making jewel case inserts with the track listings.
If you’re referring to it only catering to people using Apple products in general, then sure. But it was also where 90% of people at the time were purchasing their legal content. And I don’t even have to talk about Apple’s mp3 player market share.
Agreed. I had a conversation with Rick Rubin who was happy to chat with fans. I feel Apple didn't do much to update the platform.
What a beautiful interface, nice depth to it. Not like the flat, bland, plain interface of today.
Back before his true ideology was sprinkled on every facet of Apple.
Good lord has it been 10 years already?
I’m glad she hasn’t burnt out. She has real talent and training to back up the hype and image.But she’s got a long ways to go to prove herself among people like Dolly Parton, who was famous when I was in kindergarten 49 years ago and remains popular and beloved to this day! She’s an amazing songwriter and businesswoman.
And 80-something Loretta Lynn got herself faux married to Kid Rock! That was a perfect joke for 2020! 🤣. She’s still got so much sass. Madonna could learn a thing or two about staying young and fun the right way from those two ladies.