Apple has unexpectedly launched Snapshot, a sort of social network for singers, actors, and athletes. And this isn’t Apple’s first attempt at this. More than 14 years ago, the company introduced Ping, a genuine social network for artists where they could share their music and posts.
Ping was launched in 2010 and was introduced on September 1st as part of a major iTunes update. This social network allowed users to follow artists, see their posts, see their new music, and see what their friends were listening to.
Steve Jobs described it as “kind of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes,” though he clarified that “Ping isn’t Facebook” and “isn’t Twitter.” The announcement was supported by artists such as Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, who performed at the end of the presentation, and Lady Gaga.
Apple’s goal was to create a music-centric social experience, directly integrated into its ecosystem. They wanted to transform iTunes into more than just a store: into a music community.
However, Ping’s launch fell short of expectations. Just 24 hours after its launch, the service was flooded with fake accounts attempting to scam users. Furthermore, the interface proved confusing to many, and the lack of integration with popular social networks like Facebook limited its growth. Just two years later, Apple shut down the platform on September 30, 2012.
Over time, Ping went down as one of the few major public failures for Apple, a company that rarely stumbles when launching new products. To this day, it’s still remembered as a failed experiment in blending social media with music.
Will Snapshot succeed where Ping failed?
While they may seem similar, Snapshot isn’t as ambitious as Ping, at least not right now. Snapshot seems to be designed to uncover the content that certain artists have on Apple’s platform, rather than being a social network where they publish content.
For example, if we go to Taylor Swift’s profile, we’ll see a brief description of the artist, her latest album on Apple Music, and any released albums; the content available from her on Apple TV; and the podcasts she’s appeared on.
We don’t have a dedicated app, nor is there even a way to search for artists or athletes. For now, we have a website that displays a carousel of different profiles. While this could be just the beginning, Apple could further expand this feature by including it in its most popular apps. But, right now, Snapshot is far from the social network Ping intended.
