Over One Million Registered Ping Users in 48 Hours

Part of Apple’s big iPod announcement was the news about iTunes 10 and the new Ping music social network. This new network is a combination of “twitter + facebook” for music lovers, and it’s built right into iTunes. Apple has just announced in a press release that Ping users have topped one million in the first 48 hours. Here’s the press release:

Ping Users Top One Million in First 48 Hours

CUPERTINO, California—September 3, 2010—Apple® today announced that in less than 48 hours since its launch on Wednesday, more than one million users have joined Ping, its new social network for music which lets users follow their favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading.

“One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping,“ said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing.“

Ping lets you follow your favorite artists such as Lady Gaga, Coldplay, U2, Jack Johnson, Yo-Yo Ma and more, to see what they’re up to, check out photos and videos they’ve posted, see their tour dates and read comments about other artists and albums they’re listening to. In addition, you can post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes® and the concerts you plan to attend.

My Thoughts on Ping As a Social Network

When I first heard Steve Jobs introduce Ping, I thought it was a fantastic idea. Sure, MySpace is a great music network for people to connect to their favourite artists–but the layout and experience just plain sucks.

Ping has a very clean layout and is easy to register and setup your privacy levels. I setup my Ping account to see what it’s all about and as of right now–my interest just isn’t there.

For starters, keeping Ping updated will be yet another social media network to stay connected to. With Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare, etc, already occupying enough of our time, just how much time will you spend on Ping?

Steve Jobs mentioned to Kara Swisher from All Things Digital that the reason Facebook Connect wasn’t implement was because of “onerous terms” required by Facebook. In Kara’s update she goes on to report that “Facebook Blocked API Access to Ping After Failure to Strike Agreement, So Apple Removed Feature After Launch”.

When you want to work with Apple, usually you cannot dictate terms with Steve Jobs and Co. It’s more like the other way around.

What do you think of Ping so far?

[Apple]