Apple is abandoning its second attempt to create a social network focused on music because no one wants it.
Remember Ping? It was released at a time when iTunes was the leader in music streaming services. So Apple created a social media platform within iTunes where artists could promote their work and talk about what inspired them. As for users, they could recommend songs and albums to each other.
But nobody liked it, so Apple removed it. The reasons Ping went wrong? The discoverability was poor, artists didn't keep posting, and it seemed more like marketing than a means of true social networking.
And then, when Apple Music launched in 2015, Apple made the exact same mistakes with a new social network called Connect. Now, Apple is killing Connect, and we have to say, we were expecting it.
From the beginning, we said that turning off Connect would make Apple Music better. We’ve previously talked about what Connect needed to succeed. In the years since, Apple has slowly made Connect less accessible in Apple Music.
Music is a way for many people to socialize. Friends want to listen to music together, go to concerts together, talk about the latest tracks from their favorite artists, and gossip about their personal lives. But neither Ping nor Connect has been able to tap into that. They were built around the core idea that artists need a place to reach their fans – follow Taylor Swift and she’ll keep you up to date with her latest news!
The incentive for an artist to use this service is zero. Artists already use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They prefer to communicate with their fans there, where they can express themselves in a genuine way and not “filter” their thoughts for the Apple audience. These networks are built so that users comment, follow, post photos, and share. Connect, like Ping, are not networks with this philosophy.
If an artist posted an update on Connect (which was harder than it should have been), it was only seen by a select few fans the artist had on Twitter or Instagram. Taylor Swift fans couldn’t do the equivalent of a “retweet” on Apple Music to share her latest message with their friends and followers.
So the only real reason for an artist to post on Connect was to promote their latest work. If you're a big enough fan and follow them, you might already know this.
Apple Music needs social features, not a social network
Let's face it, if an artist wants to reach fans, there are better ways to do it than a post on Apple Music (or Spotify or any other music platform). Artists use Twitter, Facebook , and Instagram to reach fans because these platforms are much bigger. They were also created to make sharing faster and easier since all three are built around commenting and sharing.
Social features that help people enjoy their music together are what music services need, not a stream of artist “posts” to follow. Apple Music doesn’t need a social network, it needs social features.
Finding and adding friends from other social networks should be a top-tier feature. Collaboration should be a priority, as should quick and easy ways to create playlists with friends and then share them with the rest of the world. The interface should allow us to share tracks, albums, or playlists with a channel on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, with a premium listening experience built right into those services, rather than a basic album art that essentially links you to Apple Music.
How could Apple bring its audience back? It could create an extension of Group FaceTime, with music playback syncing across devices. This could be a good way to spread out Apple Music subscriptions — anyone could join a FaceTime party to listen and talk, but only Apple Music subscribers would be able to start one, control playback, or suggest songs to listen to next.
Basically, perhaps the biggest problem with building a social network on Apple Music is that it's behind a paywall. If the songs and playlists shared by users or artists can only be heard by users and other subscribers, access will always be limited.
