Apple has removed the Connect section of Apple Music.
This page on Apple.com confirms the change, stating that “Connect posts from artists are no longer supported.”
Users will still be able to search for Content posts until May 29th next year. But all new Connect content stops today.
When Apple introduced Apple Music at WWDC 2015, it pitched Connect as a unique avenue for linking musicians and their fans and a standout feature of the service. Jimmy Iovine had claimed that Connect is one of the three major pillars of Apple Music, with the others being the streaming music service and Beats Radio.
“This is going to be very powerful for musicians,” Iovine said on stage. “Can you imagine being an up and coming artist and being able to share your music on the biggest platform in the world that people already have?” Here’s a promotional video on the feature (though don’t be surprised if Apple pulls it from YouTube).
“We encourage you to spend the time on your body of work. Spend the time on your craft. Assemble the right body of work. And instead of having to post your stuff on all these different and sometimes confusing places, it all lives in one, very simple, very easy place, and that is Connect,” Drake said. “This approach is how we broke in 2008, and it has been perfected and of simplified, of course, by the great people at Apple,” he added. “This is something that simplifies everything for the modern musician like myself and the modern music consumer like you.”
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Connect was intended to be a Twitter and SoundCloud hybrid. Artists can post anything to engage with the fans – demos, behind-the-scenes and etc. Users can like or comment on them.
Connect will remind many users of the similarly fated iTunes Ping that Apple launched in 2010 and shut down 2 years later.
