Apple's failed social media platform Apple Music Connect is back, but this time not for fans. Instead, it's a set of promotion tools for record labels.

It's not as if Apple starts up and abandons social media programs as often as Google kills off apps, but it feels close. Alongside better-known failures such as Ping, there was Apple Music Connect, which started in 2015 and died in 2019.

Now Apple has brought it back — or really just reused the name — with Apple Music Connect for record labels and music distributors. It still has a social media element in that its tools include what Apple calls social templates for promotion on Twitter, Instagram and so on.

Beyond that, the new service is similar to the existing Apple Podcasts Connect in that it acts as a single destination for a range of tools. In this case, the tools offered to record industry professionals are divided into three main categories:

  • Promote
  • Pitch
  • Media requests

Under promotion, Apple offers resources to "build momentum around a release." It's chiefly a series of templates that artwork can be added to.

For the Pitch tools, Apple includes ways to "get your artists on our radar." This is really a form for record labels to fill out giving information about a release, which is then sent to Apple Music editorial teams worldwide.

Then, Media Requests is like the opposite of Pitch. It's for Apple Music to ask the record label for publicity images.

Lastly, the new service also rounds up tools for creating embedded players, badges, and affiliate links.

So Apple Music Connect is less about offering anything specifically new, but it does give the music industry a single destination for its dealings with Apple Music.

Purple promotional banner reading Build momentum around a release, featuring multiple overlapping music cards with a long-haired musician's portrait and album or playlist titles, plus a circular plus button in the corner

Detail from the "Promote" section of Apple Music Connect — image credit: Apple

Apple Music Connect cannot be accessed unless you are working in the industry. Apple doesn't even let users apply, it directs them to "reach out to someone in your organization."

The new service is listed as being part of the "Apple Music for Partners" program. That's an existing service which on the face of it appears to already offer at least most of the same features, but perhaps in a less streamlined way.