Ping seems to have focused on the wrong idea. Right now Ping is centered around the artists and, honestly I could give a crap about the artists. If I wanted info on an artist, I could just follow them on Twitter or Facebook. They both do that job very well.
What neither do well and what Ping should have been centered around is the idea of #nowplaying. Most important to me is discovering songs my friends love. People tweet now playing because you find a new song you think others might like or an old song that fits your mood of the day and you want to share that mood. Now playing gets lost in a stream of other randomness on Facebook and Twitter, but if it had its own feed where I could find the friends that I already have on Facebook and Twitter it would be very useful to me. I would be inspired to download songs I dont have yet or add songs I hadnt been listening to to my ipod. I should be able to Shazam a song and send it straight to ping with a comment.
Ping should be smart enough to let me see the songs pinged sorted by genre, artist, whether or not I already have it, how many times my friends pinged a song which hints at popularity, if Ive never heard the song before. People should be able to ping a whole playlist if they want to. Podcasts, tv shows, and movies should get the same treatment. The potential for this is pretty big. Sadly, its being wasted. I understand they put time into trying to partner with Facebook, but Twitter might have made a better partner to begin with since it is where now playing was born.
What neither do well and what Ping should have been centered around is the idea of #nowplaying. Most important to me is discovering songs my friends love. People tweet now playing because you find a new song you think others might like or an old song that fits your mood of the day and you want to share that mood. Now playing gets lost in a stream of other randomness on Facebook and Twitter, but if it had its own feed where I could find the friends that I already have on Facebook and Twitter it would be very useful to me. I would be inspired to download songs I dont have yet or add songs I hadnt been listening to to my ipod. I should be able to Shazam a song and send it straight to ping with a comment.
Ping should be smart enough to let me see the songs pinged sorted by genre, artist, whether or not I already have it, how many times my friends pinged a song which hints at popularity, if Ive never heard the song before. People should be able to ping a whole playlist if they want to. Podcasts, tv shows, and movies should get the same treatment. The potential for this is pretty big. Sadly, its being wasted. I understand they put time into trying to partner with Facebook, but Twitter might have made a better partner to begin with since it is where now playing was born.
