Apple’s iTunes-only Ping socializes your music with elements of Facebook (video demo)

As part of version 10 of iTunes, Apple announced its Ping social network for music fans. The new social network lets you publicly announce the music that you like. You can share it with your friends and make Twitter-like comments on it in real-time. You can follow your friends and your favorite artists as well. And those celebrity artists can create their own Ping fan pages where they can communicate and hold conversations with fans.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, speaking at today’s press conference, said that Ping helps with the whole problem of discovering the right kind of music that fits you when there are millions of songs to choose from. As part of iTunes 10, Ping went live today.

Ping is interesting because it addresses one of the fundamental flaws of the iTunes market. It has millions of pieces of content, but it isn’t easy to find what you want. Facebook and Twitter solve that problem by letting you connect to friends and see the content that they recommend. Ping works in a similar way, delivering content that your friends like to you.

Here’s a video demo of Ping in action in a demo at Apple’s event today.

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