Industry News » All aboard the Social Networking bus
All aboard the Social Networking bus
Apple has announced the new Ping service, a social network focused on music, which will soon be available via iTunes, whilst Sony recently revealed plans to roll-out Qriocity to Europe.
During the Apple 2010 Music Event, where they also announced a refresh of their iPod devices, Apple unveiled Ping as a part of iTunes 10. The new service will be available to artists and fans alike, with a now-ubiquitous activity stream to allow the posting of news and updates, alongside the usual iTunes store. Additional to this, networkers will be able to view their friends’ activities, the music they’re buying and streaming, and even includes features to track the gigs they’re attending, much like the Songkick site.
The new service will also feature new and improved streaming functionality, allowing users to stream not only music and video, now including TV show rentals, but also their iPhoto libraries directly to the majority of Apple’s mobile devices. With many phone companies stripping away unlimited data plans, streaming may become less of a priority to users who will only benefit from streaming in a WiFi enabled area. For many, this will be at home, where they could simply log into the application itself.
Sony has also stepped into the fray with a service of its own, the Qriocity platform, which has been available in the US for several months. The music and video streaming service will work from within Sony devices, such as web-enabled TV sets, Sony Vaios and the PlayStation 3 console. The subscription-based service will allow the download of high-definition movies and songs, in the same vein as iTunes, with similar music-tracking features as found in Last.fm, the hugely popular online radio site. The real edge Sony has at this point is the huge catalogue of music available to them right from the outset. Moreover, they have the ability to remove this music from the iTunes store at any time.
Sony has previously attempted a similar service, in the Connect Music site, launched in 2004. The site failed to perform as well as intended, closing its doors to users sometime in 2007. However, with iTunes performing consistently well for the last seven years and similar sites continuing to draw in users, Sony can obviously see the huge potential in trying again. The two main features, Music Unlimited and Video On Demand are expected to launch on the platform separately, remaining independent of each other. The two services are likely to be brought to Sony’s mobile devices in time.
Epicentre Says: “Whilst it’s interesting to see such big names stepping into the ring, attempts to claim some of the market held so well by the likes of Facebook, Last.fm and Spotify may prove to be futile. In recent times, those looking to enter the social networking arena have tended to fail rapidly, with only the truly stand-out offerings lasting for any real length of time. Sony’s previous taste of failure should have been a significant warning that iTunes already had most of the market sewn up and a subscription-based service may in itself be enough to warn many users off, with many already taking full advantage of the free offerings that are available.
Apple must also be aware that as Facebook continues to set the standard for social networking, now including the ability to synch with both Twitter and MySpace, their own offerings must include something new, innovative and above all special enough to convince networkers that it’s worth the time and effort to adopt a new service, and that their friends will choose to come with them. If early adoption is high enough, they may be able to bring something to market that becomes as widely-used as the devices they plan to stream to.”
