Apple Music Connect is Back — But It’s Not a Social Network This Time
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Remember Apple’s failed music social media platform, Apple Music Connect? Well, just like Neil Sedaka, it’s back — and this time around it’s a set of marketing tools for record labels.
In what was effectively its second attempt at music-based social media, Apple announced Apple Music Connect in 2015 as a way for artists to “connect” with their fans. This wasn’t quite as grand of an attempt as its ill-fated “Ping” social network, which launched in September 2010, but it didn’t last much longer.
Ping was designed to be a full-blown social media network, built into the iTunes app (remember iTunes?), that would allow users to follow their favorite artists, discover what music their friends were enjoying, which concerts they were attending, and more. Users followed artist updates and friend activity, while a Top Ten chart automatically surfaced the most popular tracks within their circle.
By contrast, Apple Music Connect was originally a social media platform within the more modern Apple Music ecosystem that was centered on artists, who could use it to directly connect with their fans by sharing lyrics, posting exclusive photos and videos, and even releasing their latest songs directly to followers. However, artists were less than pleased with the tools on the platform, and it soon fell out of favor, shutting down less than four years after it debuted.
This week, Apple Music Connect made a comeback, although the name is the biggest thing the new service shares with its former version. While Ping was made for users and the 2015 iteration of Apple Music Connect was made for artists, “Connect Redux” is for the record labels and music distributors. It still includes social media features, now called “social templates” that allow labels — not artists — to promote their content on Instagram, Twitter, and other established social media platforms.
Introducing Apple Music Connect.
A resource for labels and distributors to promote content, pitch priority releases, upload press photos, and create beautiful marketing assets—for all your artists—all in one place.
The new service is designed to act as a one-stop hub for a range of promotional tools: “a web-based tool that allows [labels] to easily manage the promotional and marketing activities for all of [their] artists in one, centralized location.”
The tools offered to record industry professionals are divided into three main categories:
- Promote: A collection of templates that artwork can be added to and be used to “build momentum around a release.”
- Pitch: Offer tools to “get your artists on our radar.” This amounts to a form for record labels to populate with information about a release, which will then be sent to Apple Music editorial staff around the globe.
- Media Requests: Where Apple Music can ask record labels for publicity materials.
There are also tools for creating badges, embedded players, and affiliate links.
Apple Music Connect is part of the Apple Music Partner Program, an existing service that’s been around since 2024 and is only available to those working in the music industry. End users and even indie artists are not allowed to apply directly, although those who distribute through services like DistroKid or CD Baby can can coordinate with their distributors to access the broader tools, including the Apple Music for Artists app remains the go-to for singers and songwriters to track their daily stats..
