On Wednesday of this week, Apple had another of their big events in which they announced new iPods, the new Apple TV, new iOS, and the new iTunes, which features a social network for music dubbed “Ping.” Well, today I had the chance to play around with Ping for a little bit, so I figured I’d share some of my initial impressions of Ping.
I’ll begin by saying it reminded me a lot of when I first started using Twitter and didn’t really know what to do. With Ping, I didn’t have any friends to follow, there were only a few bands on there to follow, and I was left wondering what is there for me to do on here? Important to note: when I first started Twitter, I quit for a good 5 or 6 months before I came back and actually sent out my first tweet.
Artist Selection
Let’s just say the number of artists available to follow right now are…limited. This can be expected with Ping being so new, but I only found a handful of bands/artists that I really wanted to follow. Hopefully over time, more and more artists will sign up and provide some pretty solid content on there for their fans. I would be interested to find out what the process is for an artist to get “approved” to be one of the artists users could follow, as this could have a major impact on the selection of artists to follow. This is probably one of the biggest and most important question marks moving forward, and I’m sure Apple is trying their darnedest to improve in this area.
Finding Friends to Follow
The second thing I wanted to do in Ping was find which of my friends were signed up so I could follow them, check out their musical interests, etc. This proved difficult to say the least. The only option I could find was searching friends by email, and honestly, that sounds like a pretty outdated option to me. In the email Apple sends when you sign up, it says there’s an option to invite your Facebook friends, but I couldn’t find it to save my life (as a result, I’m only following two people right now). To me, this means it’s not nearly easy enough to find. Either way, what about adding Twitter friends too? People won’t stumble across friends’ profiles like they do in Twitter or Facebook, so it’s critical that Apple makes this step as easy and versatile as possible.
Privacy Settings
Of course, privacy is going to be a topic that is talked about with any social platform, so why should Ping be any different? Really, the privacy settings are pretty simple. On one end, you can let anyone follow you who wants to. On the other end, you can be selfish and follow whoever you want, but not let anyone follow you. In the middle, you can choose to approve of any new followers. I didn’t choose this option, but word on the street is it will show you the user’s name, profile pic, and email address when you’re choosing whether or not to approve them. Also of note, the profile picture that you upload goes through a sort of review process through Apple to avoid any offensive content (I don’t envy whoever has that job!)
The Social Aspect
I must say, the idea of a social network around music is one with a heck of a lot of potential, but I think that Ping has a ways to go to reach this full potential. The social aspects of Ping are pretty simple. When you follow artists, the content they publish comes through your stream (photos, videos, etc.) When you follow a person, the music they buy and/or like as well as artists they follow and any reviews they write. Other users can then comment on any of these tasks.
Something that did surprise me is when you’re viewing an album in the iTunes store, it shows how many total users “liked” it, but it doesn’t say specifically which of your friends liked that album, which seems like it would be a very useful option. If i know that I have similar music interests to Joe and see that Joe “liked” an album, I’m more likely to buy it.
Something else that hurts Ping in a way (but doesn’t surprise me at all, considering it is Apple) is how Ping is pretty much a closed ecosystem. You use it completely in iTunes, all the actions you take stay within iTunes. It fits with Apple’s mantra, but it doesn’t really help Ping really take off. What if, when you “Liked” something, it showed up in a special Ping application you could set up on your Facebook profile? This would prevent it from just falling into your feed (because then why would you need the Ping feed?) and would bring Ping into the Facebook interface which is without a doubt more “social.” Or, why not allow users to sync their Twitter accounts, giving them the option to tweet a review they write or an album they like?
Also, iTunes isn’t really a “destination” piece of software. You typically open it to play music (or buy it) while you’re doing other tasks (ahem…like perusing Facebook), so staying in iTunes to use this will take a while for users to make it part of their routine. It seems silly, but it’s easier to use social networks that are web based than those that live within an application. Also, since it’s in the iTunes app, you can’t tell a friend: hey follow me on Ping at *insert link*. So, if I wanted to get my blog readers to follow me, I’d have to say “hey guys, type in my email to Ping and follow me.” Not an ideal situation.
User Interface
Unfortunately, I just didn’t feel 100% comfortable using the Ping interface. Part of it may be simply because it’s new, but it’s within iTunes, so it should feel pretty natural, you would think. Part of it was also because it is housed within iTunes instead of web-based. It took me a few extra seconds to figure out how to get back to my stream, how to edit my profile, etc. If I end up using Ping pretty regularly, knowing where things are will come a little more naturally, but I still think there could be an easier way to get from Point A to Point B within Ping.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
- I tried to “Like” an album which I’d bought one song from and had a bit of trouble. You have to click “view full album” and then the option to “like” it appears. Didn’t make much sense as to why this option wasn’t available without clicking.
- I saw a couple people on Twitter say that this will kill MySpace. I disagree with this. Sure MySpace is sort of the hang out in town that used to be where everyone went, and, although it’s a bit rundown now, it is still good for certain purposes. The two things that are keeping Ping from “killing” it are: 1) you can’t listen to full songs and 2) it is harder for smaller bands to get on iTunes (this is an assumption based on the artists that are available to “follow” now). So, if you’re into 30 second song previews and only like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, Ping may have “killed” MySpace. Otherwise, it’s still hanging on.
- I noticed quite a bit of spam on Ping, primarily in the form of people commenting on posts from various artists. I saw a lot of “free iPhone” links and such. It’d be nice to see something implemented to prevent this.
- Currently, there is no form of notification for when someone interacts with you. For example, someone commented on something I had “liked” and the only reason I knew was because I saw it in my stream. Some sort of notification system would help people avoid letting these slip through the cracks.
The Verdict
Overall, Ping remains a pretty nifty idea with potential, but I really don’t think that it will thrive in it’s current form. With a few changes
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I actually kind of like that it’s all housed in iTunes and I can play with it while I’m listening to music. For some reason, Blip.fm never caught on with me because I had to listen to the music on the website.
Also, I did find the Facebook thing and it asks you to connect the account, which makes me think it has the capability to add what you do in Ping to your Facebook stream. Haven’t actually tested it yet, but it makes sense that it would happen.
I do agree that they need to improve the friend finding process. I’m pretty sure I still have 0.
Another fun note, I was following Ben Folds on Twitter yesterday and he said that he didn’t know he had a Ping account until yesterday morning and he didn’t know who set it up for him. Seems a little shady, if you ask me.
Wow, that is definitely sketchy that he didn’t even know about it. You’d like to think the artists would have a little more control over what’s being put up under their name than that.
I’ll have to go back in and look for where you link it up with your Facebook account. At this point, I don’t know if it’s hidden or if I’m just blind as a bat and it’s right under my nose somewhere. So, that would definitely be cool if it shows up in your Facebook stream once you get them linked up.
In regards to it being in iTunes, I may very well be in the minority with not liking it. I tend to usually run iTunes in the background on my computer, so I don’t actually spend much time in the app’s window itself. Anyone else reading have any thoughts on this?
Thanks for stopping by and adding some more thoughts though, Corey!
Hmm, every review I’ve read of Ping since it started seems to have the same concerns, Jackie.
I haven’t really had a chance to play with it, so I don’t know the back-end at all. But it does seem bizarre that there are a limited amount of artists on there, when it’s housed in iTunes. I’m guessing it’s like MySpace in that bands have to set up a profile? They don’t just transfer over from the iTunes store?
And yeah, email follows are pretty antiquated these days
Yup, I’m seeing a lot of the same around other sites as well, Danny. To be fair, there are more artists since a couple of weeks ago when I wrote this, but I’m still not sure if the content they’re sharing really even makes it all that attractive. What I’ve seen mostly has been some behind the scenes videos/photos from the artists and some status updates pretty much (nothing earth shattering).
Even more concerning is I haven’t even heard anyone outside of the social media bubble talk much about it, so I think it will take a while for it to really even be recognized by the common-folk out there.
It should be interesting to see how Ping evolves and grows from here though.