Watch: Apple Music gets more social in iOS 11

Starting this fall with iOS 11, Apple Music users will be able to share their listening habits and playlists with friends. AppleInsider shows you how it will work.

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10 Comments

jbdragon

said about 6 years ago

So far that kind of thing hasn't really worked for Apple in the past. Holds zero interest for me now.

jeff_cook

said about 6 years ago

I'm liking all the recent short videos. Keep them coming.

patchythepirate

said about 6 years ago

I was really excited when Apple announced personal profile for Apple Music. It was one of the things I was looking forward to the most, both personally, and as a meaningful catalyst for Apple Music engagement. I honestly hate to harp on it, but this seems to be another huge bumble. This profile feature is laughably inept.

When is Apple going to ever understand that there is no such thing as an iterative social application?!?!? It needs to be fully baked at the onset. Especially since the social landscape is already saturated with fb, sc, ig, etc.

There's pretty much no point to having the personal profile in its current iteration. Apple should pull it until they can release a version that people will actually want to use. The needs are blatantly obvious, and should be incredibly easy to implement:
-The profile page look should be modifiable by the user, so they can upload pictures, art, or personal branding (like all aspiring DJs have, also athletics instructors who want to direct traffic to their profile, etc., etc.).
-There should be a way to write down thoughts on playlists, songs, etc.
-There should be a way to post event lists: e.g. a class schedule for athletics instructors, upcoming DJ sets for local DJs, shows or festivals coming up that you are planning to attend, etc, etc. (This will drive people to *actively* promote it, unlike the current passive, uninspiring version).
-Although it was the right call to remove system-wide facebook/twitter connections, this would be the perfect place to promote them, with links, and including instagram. These inclusions will dramatically increase Apple Music engagement, not distract from it.
-You should be able to add Beats 1 shows that you like.
-You should be able to share musicians' connect posts to your own profile, with the ability to comment on them.

Iterative improvement is a great way to progress world-leading hardware and software that already has an install base. The same concept DOES NOT apply to social applications. Like the messaging apps that now dominate their respective markets (e.g. wechat in china, whats app in india), you need to get the critical mass upfront in order to get people engaged. With social media, the most important feature is who is on it.

No one is going to want to invest effort into being active in the personal profile as it stands right now. People are going to take one look at it, maybe, possibly add couple playlists, then forget about it, and probably give up and never go back to it, no matter what comes next.

How Apple does not understand these basic things is maddening.

charlituna

said about 6 years ago

jbdragon said:

So far that kind of thing hasn't really worked for Apple in the past. Holds zero interest for me now.

no but it did work very well for Lala.com which they bought about 6 years ago. In fact if they had added it to Ping perhaps that would have lasted.

SpamSandwich

said about 6 years ago

I think if Apple engineered a way for artists to curate and "monetize" (hate that word) their own music site within iTunes/Apple Music, it would encourage them to drive more traffic to iTunes/Apple Music and get their fans involved.