iTunes Ping - A social media blunder by Apple

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3. 100 Million iPhones shipped. 15 Million iPads sold in 2010 (only 9 months). $9.5 Billion Revenue. 200 Million credit card accounts on iTunes.
4. 2 Million Beatles tracks sold in just 1 week.
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7. Released in September 2010 with iTunes 10 Steve Jobs, “Facebook & Twitter meets iTunes.” It had the making of a true success story. Steve Jobs on Ping, “Ping is for social music discovery.” There were 160 million reasons to be exact in 23 countries.
8. Its built into iTunes app on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Follow your artists & become a part of their inner circle. Join the conversation with the artists & comment on artists’ photos & status updates. Find out what music an artist likes and pick up a few recommendations. What is iTunes Ping.
9. Offers you to listen to the tracks most recommended by your friends. Also, judges which tracks are being played most often among your friends. And tracks recommended by your favorite music artists. Social Music Discovery.
10. What went wrong. Mac Vs PC war. Songs just 30 sec samples. Not all artists on Ping. Ping is on iTunes not web. Not in all countries. Came late to the party. Isolated system (except Twitter). Motivation.
11. What should Apple do. Get out of iTunes and be on Apple homepage. Call it something else & make a separate app. Promote community building within music lovers. Let users listen to full tracks online. Link it with Myspace & others. Keep it open to all artists. Be Transparent.
12. Participation. Humility. Fairness. Value. Authenticity. Summary.

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Today we are going to talk about the world’s best brand. So far, you heard about how to create brand awareness for your brand on social media. But how about when the world’s best brand wants to create their own social media. Instead of sharing the pie, they want to create a new pie all for themselves.iPad 2 is coming out in Canada on March 23rd. I know some of how are already planning to buy it in near future and Apple has come a long way..
A loong long way! From these computers to..
To.. Mac books!100 Million iPhones shipped so far..15 Million iPads sold in 2010 (only 9 months)$ 9.5 Billion earned just from iPad in 9 monthsBut the most intriguing fact is that they have..200 Million credit card accounts on iTunes. Its like they have 2/5th of Facebook with them all with their credit cards in hand.. Ready to buy whatever Apple has to offer.. You can’t wrong from there.. Or can you?
We will talk about their software now.. iTunes.. Recently they released The Beatles albums on iTunes..2 Million Beatles tracks were sold in just 1 week!! That’s the power of 200 Million credit card accounts..
So what is iTunes for those who don’t know much about it.It’s a free software you can download to play music, sync it to your iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Watch movies and much more..But the most significant use of iTunes for Apple is that consumers can BUY music from them.
Now what is PING? The topic of discussion for today.So, Ping is a social network for music that Apple introduced.
Released it in September 2010 with iTunes 10. It had all the making of a true success story as it appeared to be the most promising social network program.As some blogger said, there were 160 million reasons in 23 countries for it to be a successful venture.160 million here means 160 million credit card accounts with iTunes.According to Steve Jobs, Ping was where Facebook and Twitter met on iTunes.Also he called the purpose for ping as SOCIAL MUSIC DISCOVERY.
Before we dig deeper into what happened, lets see what exactly is Ping.It was a social network built into iTunes app which can be reached from iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.It allowed users to follow their favorite music artists and become a part of their inner circle. Be on the inside.You can add your friends and join the conversation with those artists, comment on their photos and status updates.You can also find out what music the artist likes and pick up a few recommendations.
That is where Social Music Discovery begins.Social Music Discovery is when you know about what songs your friends recommend, what songs are most popular among your like-minded friends and also your music artists. This can enable you to be updated with the popular tracks and hence strengthen your social fabric by being the cool one in the group.Everything seems good..
So what went wrong??Why did this Titanic sink?? I am going to open a can of worms now..Mac Vs PC.. PC users detest iTunes as it takes a lot of memory when its activated. It also makes their PC ridiculously slow.All songs on Ping were just 30 seconds sample.. Users could not even listen to the entire track.Not all artists were on Ping. If it’s a band, only one profile would be available and some PR agency would be handling that profile. Small individual artists were not even invited to be on Ping.Ping was only available through iTunes and not a part of the web independently.It was also not available worldwide but only in those countries where Apple could sell its music via iTunes.iTunes came very late to the party. Facebook was already reaching its 500 million users and Ping had just begun.Users could not share anything FROM Ping to other websites like Facebook or Twitter or Flickr, although external links from Facebook or Youtube would work on Ping.But the most important reason which the consumers understood and let to the downfall of this monster was MOTIVATION. Apple’s motivation to bring Ping to market. All this isolation was done to make sure that users stay on iTunes and buy their recommended music. The money blindfolded Apple and it could not see the basic purpose of social media. The basic rule of social media i.e. Independence. So much of control over Ping made users cautious and hence nobody stayed on it for long. From web 2.0, Apple steered the ship backwards to web1.0 and moderated all content and sucked out freedom from social media. Without independence, social media is not social media but just another kind of media for Apple’s brand building. It’s like they tried to govern consumers as puppets to build their own brand and not build a music community.
The first thing they should do is, Get out of iTunes and make a new website or let consumers login to their homepage.Make a new app for this social media and may be call it something else. Ping sounds funny.. LOLPromote community building within music lovers and not just their own brand.Give users some independence and let them listen to good uncut music online.Integrate with Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all other websites to be a part of this pie and not be the Pie.Open all doors to all artists.. Single or groups, big or small.. Consider everybody as equal.And last and the most important.. BE TRANSPARENT..Thank you everyone!

iTunes Ping - A social media blunder by Apple

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iTunes Ping - A social media blunder by Apple

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