Ping Wants to be Your Music Social Network of Choice (But Isn’t Quite Ready)

Today, Apple released Version 10 of their digital-media-monopoly-wannabe iTunes, and along with it, launched their new music social networking app, Ping. Steve Jobs calls Ping Facebook plus Twitter for music; it allows you to follow your favorite artists as well as your friends, and get updates, music, and videos from them all on one Facebook-like feed. That feed, of course, is attached to the iTunes store for easy purchasing.

Bye-Bye MySpace?

At first glance, this seems like a MySpace killer. Easily the most powerful feature that MySpace retains, now that the largest portion of the social networking crowd has long since migrated to Facebook, is MySpace Music. Even though MySpace’s overall spotlight has considerably dimmed, MySpace Music is still one of the premiere places to build a social networking profile for your band, connect with your fans, and find more. It’s a place where I discovered a lot of my favorite bands and artists. If Apple were to build a more usable, more hip, more popular music tool, it could push MySpace even further into obscurity.

The good news is that isn’t likely to happen. Not yet, anyway.

A Rough First Impression

I downloaded Ping and set up an account just hours after iTunes 10 was released for download, but I was mostly disappointed with what I see so far. It must be said that Ping is somewhat of a wasteland just now. It’s understandable that the early adopter crowd should be small, but I’m not just talking about the user-base. There aren’t even that many artists to follow just yet.

Ping’s home page offers about a baker’s dozen of suggested artists for you to follow, ranging from Yo Yo Ma to Lady Gaga to U2. “You can do better than that,” I thought, and I started typing artists’ names into the search bar to see who I could find. Now, admittedly, I started searching for some of my favorite artists, who are not exactly huge in a mainstream way, but I also peppered in some Billboard Top 100 artists, and here were my results:

On Ping: Brittney Spears, Taylor Swift, Weezer, Seal, Justin Bieber

Not on Ping: Gnarles Barkley, Regina Spektor, Tom Waits, Sigur Ros, Silversun Pickups, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Usher, the Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Rise Against, and Phoenix.

I could follow every last artist on this list on Twitter, and most of them on Facebook, both places I already go to for a number of other purposes. So, what’s the draw of Ping, exactly?

Socializing or Selling?

If your uncle Fat Dude were a cynic, he might tell you that the only current purpose of Ping seems to be to help you find things to spend your money on in the iTunes store. And of course, we all know that is the ultimate purpose. But it could be a useful tool, too. Where can I search artists who are on Ping by popularity? Or genre? Where can I pull contacts from my Gmail account, or my Facebook friends? Why can’t I choose to share my currently playing song? Are you serious that I can’t “like” the Beatles because they’re not available on the iTunes Store? And does the lack of any “create an artist account on Ping” option mean that little guys who don’t sell on iTunes aren’t welcome either?

Some potential, But Not a Great Start.

I’ll admit it, I loved Ping as a concept. I wasn’t sure that I needed another social network, but I was excited for a great music social network that I could use to find some new artists, share music with my friends, and help some of my clients find new fans. Ping, unfortunately isn’t that great for any of those things yet. This could definitely be the worst product release that Apple has had in recent memory, worse than all of the first-gen iPod battery complaints. Can Apple take some constructive criticism and create a new must-visit network? Time will tell…

Have you checked out Ping yet? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Back in the Saddle Again

So… I don’t know about anybody else, but it’s been quite a 2010 so far for the folks here at Fat Dude. After some client craziness, some medical mishaps, and all manner of distraction, we’re back and ready to rock. Look for regular updates again here on Fatblog!

Food For Thought: What Do You Offer?

Marketing guru Seth Godin offered some wise words recently on his blog regarding the nature of social networking to strengthen your Personal Brand Identity.

Seth says that if the social web had a mantra, it would be “Notice me:”

“So much time and effort is now put into finding followers, accumulating comments and generating controversy… all so that people will notice you.”

 Seth points out that getting noticed should be a means to an end, not the end itself. Keep this in mind as you accumulate your Facebook fans and your Twitter followers; now what are you going to do with them? What value are you going to offer to their lives to keep them coming back?

Read Seth’s full post,  and let me know what you’re going to do with all that attention.

“Notice Me.” — Seth’s Blog

T-Minus 5..4..3..2..1.. We have Fat!

Image by: Jurvetson

We had a whole acceptance speech planned, then we realized anyone can get one of these blog things these days. Who knew?

Instead, we’ll start with brief introductions and thanks. The thanks are for you. Thanks for visiting our home on the world-wide-web. Thanks for taking the time to read our rantings. Hey, thanks for wiping your feet at the door; somebody’s mother taught good manners.

Our mission at FatDudeDesign.com is simple: to make it possible for every artist and entertainer to promote themselves on the web. We provide the tools, the know-how, and the nose-to-the-grindstone-edness that it will take to get your name and your work the exposure you deserve.

At the Fat-Blog, our goals are just as lofty: provide a one-stop shop for tricks, tips, tutorials, testimonials, and other articles (dang, and we had a great alliteration thing going on there, too) about pounding the pavement (both literal and digital) to make a name for yourself.

The comment section is open! Let us know what questions you’d like to see answered, what kinds of articles you’d like to read, and what your favorite grill recipe is (oh, how we love our grill!)

The light is also always on at TheDude(at)FatDudeDesign.com