When Apple introduced the new iTunes 10 on Sept. 1, music lovers got a little surprise: there- -was an entirely new service attached to their iTunes store account.
A little purple cloud greeted users who explored iTunes’ updated interface.
Apple’s chief executive officer, Steve Jobs announced that Ping is “is sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes,” according to an article from Google News.
Like Twitter, users “follow” their favorite artists, and much like Facebook, users can search for and read about their friends.
Ping has been approved by music giants like Lady GaGa and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin.
Users and music artists alike can update their statuses, “like” music purchases, comment on friend’s purchases and rate music in the iTunes store.
Your Ping account will announce when artists are coming to your city for concerts, as well as preview songs that are available for downloading.
Ping is currently available in 23 countries, and was launched with one million users.
Ben Eres, a UT graduate student was not one of those million.
Eres had heard about Ping in his integrated marketing communications classes from a fellow colleague as they were looking at social marketing strategies of today’s technologically charged environment.
When asked if he’d ever use Ping to follow his favorite alternative rock artists and friends, Eres was unsure.
“I would if more friends were into it, if it becomes more established … I don’t know of any of my friends having [an account] yet.”
Sophomore marine biology major Dory Estrada knows where she stands when it comes to Ping.
She hasn’t updated her iTunes yet, but heard about Ping from friends.
As a die hard Coldplay fan, Estrada says she doesn’t need Ping updates to know when the band is touring or what Chris Martin is thinking at the moment.
“I love Coldplay and already get email updates… I don’t care about [Martin’s] personal life, just about their music.”
She believes that being able to share thoughts on iTunes purchases won’t really make for a friendly music scene among users.
“It’s allowing us to become more self-promoting in our musical interests,” Estrada says, “You like the music you like and Ping won’t change that.”
While Eres and Estrada had opposing views on Ping, it is still too soon to tell how this social networking hybrid will run on the Internet superhighway. After all, it is only a month old.
Amanda Sieradzki can be reached at asieradzki@spartans.ut.edu.