Apple to kill Ping social music sharing service on Sept. 30
Apple on Wednesday quietly announced it is no longer accepting new members to its Ping service and will kill the project altogether on Sept. 30.
The message appeared in the Ping section of iTunes following Apple's announcement of the iPhone 5, new iPod models and the launch of iTunes 10.7. For those iTunes users who are currently Ping members, the music sharing service will be available until the September close date.
Apple CEO Tim Cook first hinted Ping might be getting axed during the D10 conference in May.
"Will we kill it?" Cook said, referring to the service. "I don't know. We'll look at that."
He said that while Apple does not have its own social network, the company needs to "be social."
Apple's Ping service will end operations on Sept. 30. | Source: iTunes
Apple introduced Ping in 2010 as a social way to promote music discovery.
It was reported earlier in September that Ping may have been spawned by Apple's attempt to compete with music streaming companies like Pandora. The Cupertino tech giant allegedly felt that so-called internet radio would be beneficial in pushing iTunes sales, however the plans were scrapped with Ping promoted as an alternative music discovery solution.
Apple is once again rumored to be working on a music streaming service, however negotiations have yet to bear fruit.
While Ping received some acclaim at launch, the lack of true integration with social networks such as Facebook is thought to have been the service's downfall.
It is not clear what, if anything, will replace Ping, but Cook noted the deeper integration of Twitter and Facebook in iOS and the upcoming OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion update are examples of the company's social initiatives.
The message appeared in the Ping section of iTunes following Apple's announcement of the iPhone 5, new iPod models and the launch of iTunes 10.7. For those iTunes users who are currently Ping members, the music sharing service will be available until the September close date.
Apple CEO Tim Cook first hinted Ping might be getting axed during the D10 conference in May.
"Will we kill it?" Cook said, referring to the service. "I don't know. We'll look at that."
He said that while Apple does not have its own social network, the company needs to "be social."
Apple's Ping service will end operations on Sept. 30. | Source: iTunes
Apple introduced Ping in 2010 as a social way to promote music discovery.
It was reported earlier in September that Ping may have been spawned by Apple's attempt to compete with music streaming companies like Pandora. The Cupertino tech giant allegedly felt that so-called internet radio would be beneficial in pushing iTunes sales, however the plans were scrapped with Ping promoted as an alternative music discovery solution.
Apple is once again rumored to be working on a music streaming service, however negotiations have yet to bear fruit.
While Ping received some acclaim at launch, the lack of true integration with social networks such as Facebook is thought to have been the service's downfall.
It is not clear what, if anything, will replace Ping, but Cook noted the deeper integration of Twitter and Facebook in iOS and the upcoming OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion update are examples of the company's social initiatives.
Comments
Finally! What a terrible service. Apple was a fail in this area. It sucks.
Still more useful than Google+
I really didn't care for it. Didn't use it all that much.
What a bummer! I found quite a bit of new music through Ping. It was also an easy place to keep up to date with my friends Playlists.
So it has a low user base, all that means is that Apple needed to improve it. Open it up to everything in the iTunes Store, link it to iCloud and display users latest played songs, offer stats that you could post and share, etc. There was a lot of potential. Bummer that it was never fully taken advantage of.
Originally Posted by DustinLH00
Do you mean iTunes 11?
No, they mean 10.7. We don't even know if the next one is 11.
The whole concept of Ping was stupid. Good riddance.
Apple had a social network? ;-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by John.B
Apple had a social network? ;-)
Yeah, it was called Buzz and they automatically signed all their customers up to it and shared their contacts...
...oh, hang on that was Google ????????????
Originally Posted by hill60
Yeah, it was called Buzz and they automatically signed all their customers up to it and shared their contacts...
...oh, hang on that was Google ????????????
whwhwhww, wait, they did that for Buzz?! Good thing I never had any solid contacts on my Gmail account…
They could be killing it to replace it with something new when the new iTunes launches in Oct. something perhaps more like LaLa.com's sharing. They would want to make a clean start so the negative aura of Ping doesn't affect it
Quote:
Originally Posted by hill60
Yeah, it was called Buzz and they automatically signed all their customers up to it and shared their contacts...
...oh, hang on that was Google ????????????
What's Buzz? Never heard of it.
FAIL
Yes I was 1 that would have signed-up but that no private account was confusing!
The signup showed my real name & private email address but also had listed my other username for feedback?
Also this would is better then having FB or Google
I weep.
(not)