Apple really is amazing. We keep thinking they are going to go after the usual suspects like Google, Microsoft, and RIM. Now they are aiming their guns at Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg must not be happy.
I would say Last.fm is closer to the centre of Apple's crosshairs
Also, Spotify.
Also, Rdio
Huge gaps in the catalogue.
Why does Apple care about Last.fm? Does Last.fm make hundreds of millions of dollars a year? Because that seems like the minimum action to move the dials for them now.
Apple bought LaLa a while ago, that was a pretty strong sign of something like Ping happening.
Indeed. I could see this getting used for a lot more than just music. Especially since it's so tightly integrated with something I already use a lot. And there's no privacy issue.
i think you mean there's no privacy issue yet. facebook didn't have nearly the level of privacy hand-wringing that it does now when it was only open to students at select college campuses. but along came employers, and parents, and all sorts of other groups, and suddenly this "safe place" was full of people whose intentions did not match your initial expectations. same will easily happen to any network that reaches a certain size, ubiquity, etc.