In revamping artist listings on Apple Music, the company is removing Connect posts from artists’ pages – effectively killing off a major part of Apple Music’s social features.
The company introduced Connect with the launch of Apple Music back in 2015, to let artists reach out to fans directly by posting updates to a feed. However, after an initial flurry of activity, posts from artists soon dried up. In 2016, Apple removed the dedicated Connect tab from the app, and moved it to the ‘For You’ section.
The company sent a note to artists, informing them about this development:
Today we’re streamlining music discovery by removing Connect posts from Artist Pages and For You. This means you’ll no longer be able to post to Connect as of December 13, 2018, but all previously uploaded content will still be searchable until May 24, 2019. You can still create Artist Playlists with the latest version of Apple Music.
Apple says that you’ll still be able to search for previous Connect posts till May 24. So you’ve still got a few more months to listen to that unreleased version of your favorite song through Connect feature before it closes next year.
Connect was Apple’s experiment to make music social after after its previous clumsy attempt with iTunes Ping. But it’s not killing off social features entirely – you can still follow your friends or celebrities, and check out what they’re listening to. Additionally, Apple now offers an automated playlist of songs your friends are tuning into, called ‘Friends Mix’ in the ‘For You’ section.
You can see all the changes to the artist page here.
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