Apple, The Ping of Death for Music Blogs?
With Apple's announcements today, one feature of the new version of iTunes, called Ping, opens the door to a whole new world of social-music networking. A space that today is dominated by the big players, AOL, MySpace and FaceBook. However, with Apple's recent acquisition of the now defunct LaLa.com, other lesser music sites and blogs could be in serious trouble.
Just like the Titanic taking down troubled souls who could not escape the suction of the ill-fated ship's sinking, could the launch of Ping from dry dock doom lesser music sites into the abyss?
Apple's iTunes has always been a great product, especially when used together with an iDevice. It's hard to beat the simplicity of Apple's sync juggernaut. Certainly Ping's new social networking features spell trouble for the larger music blogs, who are scrambling to build or buy their way out of this predicament. From Music, to movies, to contacts and notes, everything nicely bouncing between your computers and iDevices, and in a way that is currently working for the music and movie industry. This could spell the end of some newly founded and some long-standing music blogs.
Right now, blog jockeys are scrambling to figure out what they are going to do to stave off certain irrelevance, at companies large and small. Is your site at risk? What are you going to do to stay vital when users can now simply look to iTunes for music news and reviews that they are currently getting from your site, and have to open a browser to get to? Is this fair? Is Apple within it's rights to take these steps? Could this backfire on Apple? Should they have learned the "coopatition" lesson Microsoft has learned? Let us know your thoughts and keep posted to ROCKandREVIEW.com for steps you can take to keep your site afloat.
Sep 1, 2010 at 10:12 PM I think it could be really bad. It's never a good idea to have control of everything from top to bottom.
Sep 1, 2010 at 10:23 PM I'm not so sure. I think Apple is limited to the music it carries. You can still blog on other artists, which frankly is what i'd rather hear about.
Sep 1, 2010 at 10:27 PM What does Microsoft cooperate on? They just rape people like Apple does - they both suck nuts.
Sep 1, 2010 at 10:37 PM This reminds me of when Apple got upset with Google for releasing the Google phone. Apple got all pissed saying google was moving into it's territory when they didn't move into google's.
sounds like apple wants to kill the little guy and give the bigger sites hell.
get ready for a smack-down!
Sep 1, 2010 at 10:45 PM you think microsoft is going to sue apple over the name? after all it's only one letter away from Bing.
Sep 1, 2010 at 11:36 PM idk, it sounds kind of interesting. i might check it out. strange name though.
Sep 3, 2010 at 12:10 PM Maybe this is a 'Who Moved My Cheese?' sit. > If R&R had an official Apple account(s) that readers could friend, it could be considered a benefit more than a threat. Ping is just Apple's Facebook or Twitter, and it makes sense that music bloggists would take advantage of it too. Hey, fear the Corp., but remember: in the 21st century, content is king.
Sep 3, 2010 at 2:03 PM Good point Rich. You can 'find' R&R on Ping, just search for "ROCKandREVIEW."
Dec 28, 2010 at 12:02 PM Hey - nice article. Happy Holidays to you and your family from our team! Best wishes and have an awesome New Year as well! Anyway, cool site... I'm subscribed to your feed now so I'll be checking in regularly!