Termination of Apple's Music Social Network, Ping

TechCrunch posted an article about Apple's social music network that failed because... it wasn't actually social. It's interesting to think about this issue: digital marketers love to use words like "social" and "network effects," but this article shows that even a company with vast resources like Apple can't always get it right. When a big player gets it wrong, that leaves space for startups such as Songza and Spotify to fill in the gaps. The failure of Ping serves as a lesson that though social integration is useful for a wide array products, it needs to be done right to be effective.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/01/so-long-to-apples-music-social-network-ping-we-hardly-knew-ye/