Most social media minds like to wait until the end of the year to start predicting what the big trends will be the following year.
However, a bit of a pattern is starting to emerge and I'm going to throw out an early prediction for what will dominate social news headlines in 2011: music and music-based networking.
We're starting to see a huge social-musical push already, starting with hugely popular music-based apps like Shazam and Grooveshark. There's also a growing trend of music streaming sites expanding to other venues like Pandora's Facebook integration or MOG adding a music-related news hub.
Add in last week's launch of Apple's social media music service Ping, which drew 1 million subscribers in the first 48 hours, and it's safe to say that this musical integration is a legitimate evolution in the social media space.
But it doesn't stop there. The latest news from Google is that the search giant is hoping to get a music streaming service up and running late this year in an effort to compete with iTunes and hopefully knock the music download king off its throne.
I can't (or won't) say whether or not Google will be able to overtake iTunes, but I would not be surprised if we see a lot more music-based services, apps and networks next year. Of course with how fast the social media space changes, I could be singing a different tune come December.
