iTunes Goes Social with Ping

Apple held its music event this week, and one of the highlights of Steve Jobs' mega event was a big makeover to iTunes- which transforms it into a social network and an audio galaxy. The new iTunes 10 presents “Ping,” Apple's brand new social network, which is entirely dedicated to music. Just like Twitter and Facebook, you can follow other people’s feeds and be followed as well, but this time, it's all about music and what makes you want to move it.

iTunes 10 is all about Ping, Apple's social network for music. The idea behind it is to introduce you to music you might not have heard of before. Ping is integrated throughout iTunes, in a similar manner to the Genius application. It is also available on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the same goes for the app store. It is feed-based, just like the big old social networks, Twitter and Facebook, meaning you can post videos, photos or songs and make comments or express opinions on all of those things. Posted songs are all buyable with a single click of the mouse.

You can also keep track of your friends and see their recent activity, as well as the various artists your friends might be following. You will enjoy custom song and album charts, populated by what you and your buddies are listening to the most. In addition, the service's landing page shows what concerts are out there for you to see, based on your location. And in case you are checking out a particular artist's profile, it also shows their upcoming performances and shows.

Up until now, iTunes has served up some 11.5 billion songs, 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books, and has 160 million accounts. That's a whole lot of people you can follow and a whole lot of music that can be passed around, by word of mouth, especially since Ping will be available on the iPhone as well.

iTunes 10 is already available, and for free, no less, all around the world, so you can grab yours right now. And since iTunes already houses millions of users, if you grab yours right now you probably won't feel bored as when Google launched Buzz, and nobody was around. However, only time will tell if it becomes a mega hit or not. Being familiar with Apple's groupies, however, it's probably a no brainer.