By Alex Brooks Gorillaz Perform at Glastonbury Festival in 2010 | Photo by Bethan Phillips
Music has for centuries been enjoyed by groups of people. Music is by definition an art and art is intended to be enjoyed and shared. To this day millions of people attend live concerts, music festivals and musical shows—all to share the experience of music. But music is often listened to and enjoyed on an individual basis these days and whilst we’re all very sociable, maybe more so than ever, music is all too often enjoyed by a single pair of ears.
This trend towards unsociable music isn’t new, the advent of personal music players in the 1980s made it a norm to have music directly injected into our heads without anyone around us being any the wiser. Thankfully the trend is reversing, but Apple seems to have not been invited to the party.

The principle of sharing the song currently been listened amongst a group of peers made its first waves on the internet in 2002 with the advent of Last.fm. Started in 2002 the service simply offered the ability to share the song currently being listened to on its website, with time Last.fm built up an impressive picture of an individuals musical taste. Last.fm was always listening and for me alone has over five years of music data, for some of my friends over nine years.
I’ll return to important subject of listening habits later but for now let’s continue to focus on the social element. I recently regained an interest in Spotify, it had been a few years so I was guessing the collection had grown somewhat and it was time I explored some music outside of my iTunes. Suffice to say Spotify has blown me away, not just in terms of choice (although that is impressive), but in terms of how I can interact with my friends and the wider community.
iTunes 10 with Ping a music-orientated social network
Collaborative playlists, easy sharing of playlists and a constant live stream of all the music that my friends are listening to flowing by makes for a more immersive exploration of music. Apple doesn’t underestimate the power of friends sharing what they’re listening to, with the huge iTunes ecosystem Apple attempted in 2010 to create a music based social network called Ping. I’ve discussed this before back in 2010 and concluded the similar; Apple doesn’t do social well, never has done and maybe never will. Problem is that two years down the line we’re more connected than ever and Apple more than ever looks like the train has left the station and they’re still fumbling with their luggage.
The solutions are now in front of Apple’s face, services like Last.fm have been forced into the background but the likes of Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora have supreme sharing and discovery. The kind of sharing and discovery that has time after time helped me discover and listen to new music.
Don’t get me wrong Apple has services to aid in music discovery, based on the thousands of songs I’ve bought I get average recommendations. Apple clearly underestimates the power of changing trends and how a large network of friends are the key to seeing that change.
Spotify opened my eyes in another way though and that was with the built-in apps. This is more shocking because Apple invented this game, they created the App Store and they cemented the idea of a platform and developing on a platform. Spotify has taken this idea and run with it.
Guardian Music app inside Spotify
Without going into too many specific examples the likes of having recently reviewed albums by The Guardian listed with their star ratings or having Rolling Stone magazine recommendations. How about apps curated on popular music around you or playlists created from all that recommendation data on Last.fm? Spotify has it all and it works superbly.
I have zero doubt that Apple could pull this off but there is a missing piece. It’s a piece that has been rumoured year after year for a while now and it comes down to streaming. Apple without a doubt has the largest collection of online music but I can’t get to it all readily. Without that ability to compile a playlist of 50 songs that I don’t own and have never heard is impossible without the ability to stream them.
iTunes streaming may never come but in the meantime it’d be wise of Apple to re-energise its Ping adventure, the share of music listening might be shifting away from Apple and it needs to claim it back. Although I have no doubt that Apple is still the offline listening king.
Or is Apple holding out for its streaming service to wipe the floor with the competition and create the largest music social network in the world without piggybacking on Facebook?
You can follow me on Twitter @alexbrooks, or follow @worldofapple for the latest on Mac refreshes this year.

Source: World of Apple