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Apple Music Connect to Shut Down, Suffering Same Fate as iTunes Ping

Thursday December 13, 2018 1:00 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today announced that its Apple Music Connect social platform for artists is in the process of shutting down, suffering the same fate as Ping, the company's previous social network for music removed from iTunes in October 2012.


In a letter shared with artists via 9to5Mac, Apple said artists will no longer be able to post to Connect as of today, with the feature now removed from artist pages and the "For You" tab in Apple Music. Apple says all previously uploaded Connect content will remain searchable in Apple Music until May 24, 2019:
We've made a few changes to Apple Music that we'd like to tell you about.

We're always looking for ways to enhance our focus on artists and help them better connect to fans. So we've given Artist Pages an all-new design and added new, personalized Artist Radio.

Today we're streamlining music discovery by removing Connect posts from Artist Pages and For You. This means you'll no longer be able to post to Connect as of December 13, 2018, but all previously uploaded content will still be searchable until May 24, 2019. You can still create Artist Playlists with the latest version of Apple Music.

We're also excited about the latest beta of Apple Music for Artists, which gives you everything you need to understand your music's impact across Apple Music, as well as valuable audience insights. You can even upload your own photo to use on your Artist Page. Sign up for free today.

Thank you for helping us make Apple Music a vibrant community for artists and fans.
Connect had its own tab in Apple Music when the app first launched in 2015, but its presence was later reduced to a section in the "For You" tab.

Tags: Apple Music Guide, Apple Music Connect
[ 134 comments ]


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dannyyankou
23 weeks ago
No one wants a social network for music. No one even wants to stay in music app while they’re listening for that matter. They want to hit play, listen in the background, and do their daily tasks. That’s why both services failed, they didn’t realize that.
Rating: 95 Votes
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joshwenke
23 weeks ago
In 4 years I will revisit this comment and Apple will undoubtedly have a new social music network.

See you in 2022.
Rating: 52 Votes
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Xavier
23 weeks ago
Focus on better playlist curation and add user created playlists.
Rating: 37 Votes
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BehemothManiac
23 weeks ago
The service failed because there were not enough emojis.
Rating: 30 Votes
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masterleep
23 weeks ago
The only thing worse than being an Apple social network is being a Google messaging service.
Rating: 29 Votes
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Ghost31
23 weeks ago

No one wants a social media for music. No one even wants to stay in music app while they’re listening for that matter. They want to hit play, listen in the background, and do their daily tasks. That’s why both services failed, they didn’t realize that.

total truth man. And really, all I wanted out of this was the ability to get a notification when a artist I liked released a new album. Not sure if that was related to connect or not, but this is one of the examples where apple doesn't know what people want. but its whatever. Glad they experiment with stuff. Also glad they shut it down when its clearly not working
Rating: 18 Votes
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sdwaltz
23 weeks ago
And not a single tear was shed.
Rating: 10 Votes
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newyorksole
23 weeks ago
All the money in the world and they couldn’t see Ping or Connect being a failure. These large corporations really blow my mind
Rating: 9 Votes
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Shoju
23 weeks ago

Focus on better playlist curation and add user created playlists.

This is something I absolutely don’t understand! What’s so hard about adding a feature like the one on Spotify where you can invite others to collaborate on a playlist?! That’s basically all I need in terms of social features in a music app. And I could imagine many would agree..
Hey Apple, why do you struggle so much with everything social..?
Rating: 8 Votes
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jml1982
23 weeks ago
Everyone saw this coming but Apple, and even after their first attempt failed. I do hope they will make major improvements to the music app on the iPhone and the Mac because navigating between what's saved in your library and what's on Apple music is a mess, and you can end up in a loop. Now that Spotify is coming out with an Apple Watch App, I may switch back, it just has a better user experience, and I prefer their radios from certain songs and artists as well.
Rating: 6 Votes

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