Watch: Apple Music gets more social in iOS 11

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in iPhone
Starting this fall with iOS 11, Apple Music users will be able to share their listening habits and playlists with friends. AppleInsider shows you how it will work.






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patchythepirate

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    So far that kind of thing hasn't really worked for Apple in the past. Holds zero interest for me now.
    superkloton
  • Reply 2 of 10
    I'm liking all the recent short videos.  Keep them coming. 
    jSnively
  • Reply 3 of 10
    I was really excited when Apple announced personal profile for Apple Music. It was one of the things I was looking forward to the most, both personally, and as a meaningful catalyst for Apple Music engagement. I honestly hate to harp on it, but this seems to be another huge bumble. This profile feature is laughably inept.

    When is Apple going to ever understand that there is no such thing as an iterative social application?!?!? It needs to be fully baked at the onset. Especially since the social landscape is already saturated with fb, sc, ig, etc.

    There's pretty much no point to having the personal profile in its current iteration. Apple should pull it until they can release a version that people will actually want to use. The needs are blatantly obvious, and should be incredibly easy to implement:
    -The profile page look should be modifiable by the user, so they can upload pictures, art, or personal branding (like all aspiring DJs have, also athletics instructors who want to direct traffic to their profile, etc., etc.).
    -There should be a way to write down thoughts on playlists, songs, etc.
    -There should be a way to post event lists: e.g. a class schedule for athletics instructors, upcoming DJ sets for local DJs, shows or festivals coming up that you are planning to attend, etc, etc. (This will drive people to *actively* promote it, unlike the current passive, uninspiring version).
    -Although it was the right call to remove system-wide facebook/twitter connections, this would be the perfect place to promote them, with links, and including instagram. These inclusions will dramatically increase Apple Music engagement, not distract from it.
    -You should be able to add Beats 1 shows that you like.
    -You should be able to share musicians' connect posts to your own profile, with the ability to comment on them.

    Iterative improvement is a great way to progress world-leading hardware and software that already has an install base. The same concept DOES NOT apply to social applications. Like the messaging apps that now dominate their respective markets (e.g. wechat in china, whats app in india), you need to get the critical mass upfront in order to get people engaged. With social media, the most important feature is who is on it.

    No one is going to want to invest effort into being active in the personal profile as it stands right now. People are going to take one look at it, maybe, possibly add couple playlists, then forget about it, and probably give up and never go back to it, no matter what comes next.

    How Apple does not understand these basic things is maddening.
    edited June 2017
  • Reply 4 of 10
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    jbdragon said:
    So far that kind of thing hasn't really worked for Apple in the past. Holds zero interest for me now.
    no but it did work very well for Lala.com which they bought about 6 years ago. In fact if they had added it to Ping perhaps that would have lasted.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    I think if Apple engineered a way for artists to curate and "monetize" (hate that word) their own music site within iTunes/Apple Music, it would encourage them to drive more traffic to iTunes/Apple Music and get their fans involved.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    Umm, you do know it hasn't been released yet eh?

    I mean it's still in beta form so we don't know what's going to finally be released.

    I like the idea but with all ideas execution is key. Ping was not as bad as people made it out to be but it came out when Facebook and Twitter came into full swing. Now that Facebook is sort of on a downward slope and Twitter is pretty much on the way out Apple Music could have a good chance IF people give it a chance.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    Does anyone on AI even use social media? I do, all the time, just like all my other professional colleges in their 30's. Facebook, snapchat, instagram, twitter (not so much though). These aren't going anywhere. If Apple has any change of engaging people socially (Apple Music is a *huge* opportunity), Apple needs to come up with a compelling offering. Having a circle you can put a picture in, and a list of playlists, is really kinda pathetic. It boggles my mind that Apple thinks this is worth putting out there as a feature. And you get to see what your friend's are listening to? I know I'm piling on the negativity, but that has limited utility when there's only room to see one friend circle pic at a time, and only when you're not looking at songs in list mode, which is how they're usually viewed. Now, if Apple had a specific playlist dedicated to "what are my friends listening to," that would be worth the time to look at, but I don't see that anywhere.

    This not going to draw any time away from any of the other social media apps out there. I hope Apple fixes it. Right now the "social" integration seems to be mostly useless.

    I assume that Apple assumes that just because people use Apple Music, they will use whatever social features are on there. That's not how social applications work. That's why ping and Connect failed. How many times does Apple need to learn the same, exact lesson???
  • Reply 8 of 10
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,007member
    Apple generally makes things to help you use your time better. Social media generally finds way for you to waste your time. So, I'm sort of glad Apple doesn't get it...
  • Reply 9 of 10
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    jbdragon said:
    So far that kind of thing hasn't really worked for Apple in the past. Holds zero interest for me now.
    no but it did work very well for Lala.com which they bought about 6 years ago. In fact if they had added it to Ping perhaps that would have lasted.
    Who? What? Lala.com is a dead link. 6 years ago old news. Ping flopped. Not to sound Negative, but I see this as another failure. That's my Prediction. Since I can't jump to the future, we'll have to wait to see if it ends up true or not. I think odds are on my side.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    I think if Apple engineered a way for artists to curate and "monetize" (hate that word) their own music site within iTunes/Apple Music, it would encourage them to drive more traffic to iTunes/Apple Music and get their fans involved.
    Yeah fans would probably much rather subscribe to popular artists' profiles than other listeners. They would be able to send out notifications of concerts this way and allow booking tickets directly with Apple Pay. They could also put up exclusive tracks of live performances or just unreleased recordings. Musicians do a lot of performances like Ariana Grande:







    Instead of having the media all scattered around the web, there could be a central location for musicians to promote this. Even if they linked out to or integrated other social platforms at times, it could still act as the hub for it all. An Instagram gallery plus Facebook/Twitter feed plus video performances plus tracks plus concert info and booking all in one place. If they integrated Messages, the musicians could directly message all their fans at once.

    Another form of marketing, which MusicKit will likely tap into is the kind of thing that Spotify does where apps allow you to link songs and playlists to other profiles. Dating sites and other social apps let you link playlists and songs into the profile. It would be nice to be able to even message someone on their birthday or other occasion and gift them a song but it might only stream for free for that day without the subscription. Apple could perhaps cover the stream cost up to a certain number of plays for other platforms too. For example, if the API hooked into an app and someone linked a song or playlist into their profile, someone might play the song 100 times for a given profile. This would be maybe 0.8 cents per play so 80 cents per profile. If they hook it into apps that are being used by 100 million people then it can get expensive but if 5 million then become subscribers at $100/year then it pays for itself.
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