This week, Apple added a new feature to its Ping social network for music. With the new Ping Playlists feature, you can create a playlist, or import an existing one from iTunes, and share it with your followers.
To create a Ping Playlist, go to Ping in your iTunes Store window, and down the right hand column, beneath the Ping Charts, you’ll see a new box for Ping Playlists. There may be playlists from people you follow already, which you can browse through. At the bottom, you can click to create a new playlist. Give the Playlist a name and populate it with songs. You’re limited to songs that are available on the iTunes Music Store, so if it’s really obscure, or just not on the store yet, you might not be able to add it to your playlist. When you’re done, you can publish it to your followers. In addition, you can allow your followers to add songs to a playlist if you want to collaborate on a list.
That last feature is interesting to me, because the Playlist can grow around particular interests within your group of followers, for example, “Best Kpop Ballads” or “First Slow Dance Song”. With other people contributing to the list, it can take on a life of its own, and it adds to the discoverability of music you may otherwise not know about.
With the addition of 90 second previews, a Ping Playlist feature becomes more useful. To hear the whole song, you still have to buy it, which is the whole point of the iTunes Music STORE. It’s a store to buy music, so those complaining about Ping should just choose not to use it. I’m glad to see changes happening and features being pushed out. It’s a sign that Apple is behind iTunes and Ping and wants to see it succeed.
