iTunes 10 and Ping

KatrinaKatrina
edited September 2010 in General
Has anybody tried this? Bwahahaha. I did. Back to last.fm I go (not that I ever left)!

Ping is a massive fail when major artists are missing.
Take, for just one example, Pink Floyd. Completely missing in the artist search. Yet there are three Ping users named Pink Floyd, spelled exactly the same? Hanh? What is the reasoning behind that brilliant decision?

It doesn't automatically add tracks that I've rated. I have to go in and find things to rate, and hit the facebook "Like" button.
Not for sale in the itunes store? Too bad.


I read some web article that Ping was going to hurt last.fm. Um, no. I can't see ANY last.fm users preferring Ping. Perhaps they'll get folks who've never heard of last.fm, but they too, will abandon all hope if they have to rate everything. Again. After rating it in itunes already.

Comments

  • Plong42Plong42
    Your post could have been summed up with: "Ping is a massive fail "

    There was nothing particularly social about it, nor was there much of a network. I found a couple of my apple-worshiping friends on Ping, but mostly it was clear sales platform for iTunes.
  • elwoodiciouselwoodicious
    What blows my mind is that it has the potential to be a great platform for discovering music. They collect Genius reports, they can easily know your play counts and ratings, and from that they can match you to other listeners and point out relevant musicians and albums. Did they do that? No. What we got was basically a Web 1.0 version of social networking: narrow pre-defined channels with only one entrance.

    disappoint-20100909-091727.jpg
  • kargatronkargatron
    It's shocking they released it, really. It's flabbergastingly useless.
  • NankerPNankerP
    Yeah, I'm an Apple fangrrl but I can't defend Ping. WTF? For a start, for a music networking site to restrict you to choosing three genres you like when setting up a profile ... yeah, no.
  • KatrinaKatrina
    Apple's marketing/ad dept did a FANTASTIC job on using Lady GaGa for their ad. They picked their target market well by using that artist.

    NankerP, yes I forgot that annoyance about 3 genres during setup.
    elwoodicious, great line art!
  • Dr. MutexDr. Mutex
    elwoodicious, love the drawings!
  • elwoodiciouselwoodicious
    I wish I could take credit for it but I just spend too much time online. :-S
  • KatrinaKatrina
    edited September 2010
    Um. I started following not EVERY artist, but artists I like out of the 100? artists they've "allowed" into Ping.

    Kaskade and Yo-Yo Ma are the only ones worth a damn pinging me. The rest?


    They left some lame initial comment thing, and then nada. Even my beloved U2 (sniff) and Madonna (talk to me, bitch!) are Lame-ping.
    (Say that out loud, so it sounds kinda like limping)

    It seems I must go follow Lady GagGa to see if she pings any better than my age group.
  • KatrinaKatrina
    edited September 2010
    If you want to follow me, I have no idea how to post a link. Duuuurrr. Another marketing fail.
    I'm Katrina S over there, but a search for "Katrina" does not show me.


    And I suppose you have no idea how I could follow you.


    Perhaps I should change my screen name to Rolling Stones! The Beatles! Michael Jackson! Janis Joplin!
    They already have too many Pink Floyds. I found the Pink Floyds by accident - searching for Pink, an artist I thought was more in the Ping age group.
  • choiceweb0pen0choiceweb0pen0
    if only all these years I had stayed with iTunes. Some of their free weekly downloads early on were decent. Now they seem targeted mostly to 14 year olds. d'oh
  • KatrinaKatrina
    They still have some good ones...yes, fewer and farther between.
  • choiceweb0pen0choiceweb0pen0
    I will say though if you can go into Starbucks and not feel your soul shudder, they have different free iTunes download cards by the counter that are much better.
  • Plong42Plong42
    Los Lobos was this week's freebie at Starbucks. There have been some really good ones, including Miles Davis back in February. Usually the SB Song of the Week varies between hipster (and hipster wanna-bes) and world music, with an occasional jazz tune tossed in for diversity.
  • DoofyDoofy
    If you are at an SBUX store, as I generally am several times a week, you can now get the weekly DL on their WiFi network, without a card.
  • choiceweb0pen0choiceweb0pen0
    @Doofy good to know, right up there with the company finally realizing few people were willing to pay for Internet access.
  • KatrinaKatrina
    Starbucks charged for wireless? Was that several years ago or until just recently?
    The McDonalds around here have it for free, and have for several years.
    I saw a guy outside a Panera the other day, sitting in his car using his laptop.
  • Plong42Plong42
    >Starbucks charged for wireless?

    it is free now. Used to be free only to "gold card members," now to everyone. I still prefer the little cards, I have a nice stack and a few duplicates. Sort of like baseball cards for hipsters.
  • DoofyDoofy
    There were several ways to get on at SBUX...eg, anyone with AT&T as their home ISP. You even got a couple hours per day if you had a Starbucks card. But now it is free for all.

    They are very Internet friendly at Starbucks, perhaps to a fault. Sometimes the place is packed with people (one per table) gazing into their notebooks.
  • elwoodiciouselwoodicious
    @Doofy, they certainly are. About 50% of my company works out of a Starbucks and I spent my first year working out of a Panera. I eventually decided my home office with a stereo connected to my collection made for a better work environment; plus pants are optional.
  • elwoodiciouselwoodicious
    ping-social-sterilization.png
  • KatrinaKatrina
    Hah!
  • DoofyDoofy
    Please to 'scuse if I am late to the party, but just came across this today: Justice Department Said to Start Apple ITunes Inquiry. This was back in May, there doesn't seem to be anything since then. Notable quote:
    Apple has told some labels that if they promote a new record through Amazon.com Inc.’s “Deal of the Day,” it won’t market the music as prominently on iTunes, according to a music industry executive who declined to be identified because the talks are private.

    They better be careful or they are the ones who are gonna get "Ping'ed!"
  • KatrinaKatrina
    I remember reading about that - artists choose either Amazon or iTunes, apparently.
    No idea why the justice dept thinks they need to get involved, though!
  • DoofyDoofy
    We would need to get one of our resident attys to explain that one, but I think the DoJ would be muttering about "restraint of trade." As in another famous case involving one of Apple's competitors in the computer bizniz...
  • KatrinaKatrina
    OK by me if itunes tries to choke themselves down even more! DOJ should stay the heck out of it and let them kibosh themselves!
    But yeah, I see what you're saying.
  • DoofyDoofy
    That's the whole problem (acc to the story), that iTunes is trying to kibosh Amazon, not themselves. For example, the Govt is more than happy to let eMu shoot themselves in the foot...hey, maybe they'll get a bailout!
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