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Rumor: Social networking coming to iTunes

by Mike Schramm Aug 26th 2010 at 6:15PM

There's been lots of rumors in the past about iTunes going to some sort of a cloud-based service, with the ability to store or access music remotely over the Internet, but the new word around town is that what's actually revealed at the event next week won't be quite so ambitious. Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital now says that instead of streaming, the new iTunes might be more social, with iTunes accounts serving as nodes on which users can share recommendations for apps or songs, or even share playlists or song information. You wouldn't actually be able to share music, but the idea would be to lay the groundwork on a more connected iTunes system, and set up the music software as not only a location to store your personal music, but to connect with others through the media.

Sounds interesting, and of course a rumor like that dovetails right into what Apple is working on with Game Center, where iTunes accounts will serve as the portal for connections in and around App Store games. This current round of speculation also includes improvements for the web-based version of iTunes pages, and presumably improved ways to browse and post app reviews and recommendations.

As always, we'll have to see. Nothing's confirmed until Steve walks out on stage and shows it to us, so even if Apple is working on a system like this, there's no confirmation we'll see it at the event next week until we, you know, do.



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There's been lots of rumors in the past about iTunes going to some sort of a cloud-based service, with the ability to store or access...
 

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CJ

Is this just a "me too" feature to match the zune social? If any think I think it would be better to make a music subscription feature like zune. I think that would get used more than a social refomendations.

August 27 2010 at 1:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to CJ's comment
Charli

More like an integration of features found in Lala.com. Possibly part of the reason why Apple bought the company at all. Perhaps the cut off with Lala was so that they could set up a system to transfer lala.com follows to apple ids (after someone logs in and provides appropriate credentials for linking).

And the idea does make sense. Lala put in such features as a way to encourage sales of titles and artists a particular person might not be aware of based on the old school "dude I got this CD that is the bomb, you gotta listen to these guys".

hopefully they will also put in the one time full play that lala had. very useful for previewing new stuff. And maybe even the whole 'similar artists' and 'mix it up' features.

August 28 2010 at 2:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tharealj

How about FREE iad supported MobileMe along with some sort of BBM/IChat/FaceTime like messenger?

August 27 2010 at 2:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to tharealj's comment
Charli

or how about forget the iAds. Free version for low storage email (say only 1GB), syncing, Apple ID including ichat/facetime and find my iThing. The galleries, idisk, web site features, larger email storage etc stay in the paid only version.

August 28 2010 at 2:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve

"There's been lots of rumors..."

Grammar check please. I'm usually not a grammar nazi, but this whole "there's" thing has really gotten out of hand.

August 26 2010 at 9:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Steve's comment
natebrogdon

Nope. It's rare, but it's a legit contraction. However, in this case, it should have been "there've", as the subject of the sentence (rumors) is plural. As in:

There've been cars driving by.

You would never say, "There HAS been cars driving by.", unless you were talking about what you saw while you were looking for your preciousssssss.

August 26 2010 at 10:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Grant Buell

natebrogdon.... you say "there's" is a legit contraction, but then you say that "there's" is incorrect in this case. So exactly what was incorrect about Vertigo's post? It was incorrect grammar, you said so yourself.

August 27 2010 at 2:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
doodad

You know, there was a time when TUAW was about how great Apple was, and all the good things it does for society. Now, all I see are comments about a service that doesn't exist yet, and how bad those services are.

If you'd see any history with Apple products without your jealousy lenses on, you'd see that when Apple does something, it does it the right way. The way that everyone SHOULD'VE done it in the first place.

I look forward to moving off that boated system at Facebook the second iTunes becomes socialized. I know they are trustworthy of all my personal data, unlike those facebook idiots who constantly change the rules on a daily basis. I like to know where I stand with a company that sets one standard (high), and you know what you get on a daily basis.

So, to all you naysayers who think that iTunes is bloated (it runs just fine on my new 12-core beaut), or social websites are mere data collection pits, you know what, go hang out on Gizmodo or something and take your sourpusses with you.

August 26 2010 at 8:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rudy

That is extremely unnecessary

August 26 2010 at 8:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tyler

Screw new features, how about a complete rewrite of iTunes?

It is so slow and bloated these days that it is barely usable. Especially with larger libraries.

August 26 2010 at 7:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kevincampbell247

When are they going to start calling social networking what it really is?

Voluntary information that is exploitable by corporations. Back in the olden days they'd have to put a "free raffle" box next to a fleet car at the local mall to get the kind of info people freely hand over today. Ah progress.

August 26 2010 at 6:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ry

That was the rumor last year too but all we got was "Share on Facebook/Twitter" tabs

August 26 2010 at 6:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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