Except that the experience leaves much to be desired. I think they're doing this exactly the wrong way. Make the music social network compelling first, then expand. Right now I think they've convinced a huge percentage of people who tried it today to never ever return. - Stephen Mack

Stephen, I like the simplicity. It makes you focus on one thing - music. It's something my Mom could use. (in fact I can't wait until my family starts using it so we can share our favorites) - Jesse Stay

Ditto Stephen. Aside from sharing reviews of the content they're trying to sell, there really isn't any socializing going on there. - Ciaoenrico

99% of the artists your mom (or me or anyone) care about can't be followed. Posting a song or liking a song is difficult, because it's hidden within iTunes in the tiny little pull-down arrow -- I bet your mom won't be able to find that easily. What else is there to do aside from follow/unfollow? - Stephen Mack

There are at least a dozen music-related activities I can think of that would be interesting on a social network about music, but none of them are present. - Stephen Mack

And after all... Apple is in the business of selling you stuff. It's like Amazon's 'People who bought this also bought' thing... Except it's a person you know - Johnny from iPhone

Johnny, that's not what Steve described Ping as in the keynote, though (he called it Facebook/Twitter for music). I feel let down. - Stephen Mack

And again... 14 hours old. How many labels had the iTunes LP on launch. - Johnny from iPhone

The first impression is crucial. They shouldn't have launched it in its present state, imo. - Stephen Mack

How many users have now downloaded it (how many users this feature is aimed at)? Apple has been known to take calateral damage from the tech set in search of larger markets - Johnny from iPhone

Steve was talking to a bunch of Social Media geeks - of course he'll call it a "social network" if he can. There's no such thing as a "social network" any more though. The social network's dead - I'm declaring it here. - Jesse Stay

See my numbers - back in 2005 there were 200 million downloads of iTunes. That was 2005. - Jesse Stay

I can say the Mormon Tabernacle Choir wasn't even contacted about it (to my knowledge). Artists are going to be jumping at this opportunity. Apple won't even have to promote it. - Jesse Stay

Johnny, so far you're making excuses for Apple. You're not truly making the argument for why the site should have been launched publicly now rather than kept in beta until it could be built into something ready for primetime. Sure, Apple's huge so they can get away with shit that would bury smaller companies. But it doesn't make it good business practice nor a good customer experience. And I say this as someone who's used Apple products since the mid '80s. - Spidra Webster

I don't understand how it's not ready for prime time. I can see what my friends are sharing and liking. I can share and like stuff for my friends to see. As someone who gets to manage a social media campaign for a major artist, I get to talk to a very targeted audience. It doesn't need to be much more than that. This is very valuable stuff to an artist, and the sheer number of downloads guarantees there will be eyes, and artists to help promote it. - Jesse Stay

As an artist, I see $$$ - I'll do all I can to get my customers to iTunes to start purchasing and seeing what their friends are purchasing. - Jesse Stay

This is almost more valuable to me than a Facebook Page, honestly. - Jesse Stay

Anyway, you guys are up late (except for Johnny). I'm going to go get my 3 hours of sleep for the night ;-) - Jesse Stay

As far as I can see, there are about 15 artists profiles on Ping. As Stephen mentioned, it's not easy to figure out how to bring your artist likes into your Ping profile. Well, Stephen just did a whole list on what's not ready for prime time yet. I'm sure Apple will get a lot of it right eventually but it disappoints me when they launch things before they're ready. Disrespects the customer. - Spidra Webster

Personally, for me it's not about the artists as a consumer (although as an artist I am very interested in that aspect as well). I really like the experience that's there. YMMV I guess. - Jesse Stay

Jesse, I just followed you. I see you shared a couple of albums, but I don't see any interaction (no comments from your friends or likes yet). Nor any FoaF recommendations. It looks dead. What in the experience is there for you to like? I don't see it. What am I missing? - Stephen Mack

And now, like Jesse, I'm off to get my 3 hours of sleep followed by a week's vacation. I'm hopeful that things pick up on Ping while I'm gone and I look forward to giving it another chance. - Stephen Mack

Give it time Stephen - it just launched. It will pick up. (and of course I wouldn't expect it to be very busy in the first hour or two of launch, especially in the middle of the night - I'm also a poor person to be following, as I don't listen to a ton of music anyway) - Jesse Stay

its a 'social silo' in its walled garden unconnected to other sites and its about selling music thats OK but like Amazon its hardly social - WarLord