First of all, this is Apple's first foray into the social media world. Ping lets users 'follow' each other and the artists that they like, and rate/review/recommend music to one another. The day it was released I signed up and started playing around on it, and I have some mixed feelings about it. Like most Apple products, it is extremely easy to use, and the layout is attractive. However, the 'recommended artists' it listed for me to follow were WAY off. It turns out that not many artists or bands have joined yet, which seems a little silly to me. I think it would have been smarter for Apple to recruit as many artists as possible to create profiles before Ping went public, that way the flood of new users would actually be able to follow the people they are interested in instead of waiting around to see if their favorite artists join Ping. Also, when you purchase a song from iTunes, it automatically posts that you bought it on your Ping profile. While I don't mind this, my roommate got a little embarrassed when her profile said she had just purchased 'Toot it and Boot it.' Whoops. But, like Facebook, there are ways to remove information from your profile that you don't want others to see.
Also, I don't know how much of a 'social' network it really is...there's not much interaction users can have with one another. Maybe that will change as more people start using it, but we'll have to wait and see. For the most part, I'm extremely excited about Ping, and I've been trying to convince my friends to start using it so we can figure out how to use it best. I've never had a MySpace account or spent much time using MySpace for music, but this seems like a great, updated alternative for bands and fans alike.
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