Why One Critical Flaw Will Stop Apple Ping From Hugely Increasing Sales

Apple Ping, the latest addition to the iTunes Store, is set to greatly increase music sales – but one critical flaw can stop that from happening.

Ping, the music social network for the iTunes Store introduced during Apple’s latest September music event, is supposed to increase music sales. You see what your friends and people you follow are listening to and recommending, and you buy those tunes because you trust their taste. But one critical flaw seems like it’ll stop Apple Ping from hugely increasing sales: Ping only lives in the iTunes Store.

How much time do you spend hanging out in the iTunes Store? How many people do you know that spend a lot of time there? For most people, the iTunes Store is like Best Buy or any other store – you come in, get what you need, and get out.

By limiting Ping to the confines of the iTunes Store, Apple is severely limiting where people are able to buy the music recommended by their friends and folks they follow. If Apple wants Ping to really take off sales-wise, they’ll open it up to the web.

All that needs to be done is for Apple to offer an embed-able widget for Ping. Users can then embed their latest purchases, recommendations, and top 10 lists on their websites, where people do actually hang out.

It’s no different from how Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and even specialty music stores like Beatport have offered embeddable widgets.

Music sales can especially increase on the websites of influential music bloggers and music publications like Pitchfork, where a lot of eager music fans visit to get their latest music recommendations.

With an embed-able Ping widget in place, you can go to the websites, see the latest recommended tune that you like, click on a “buy” link and it’ll take you to the iTunes Store where you can purchase it.

So Apple, consider this a ping to open Ping up. You win, the artists and labels win, and music fans win.