Apple introduces music social networking site Ping

Apple unveiled Ping yesterday at the company's annual music event in San Francisco. The new social network works as a music-centered community that exists within iTunes. The announcement coincides with the release of iTunes 10.

Groupies can now follow their favourite artists and find out where and when they are playing, what music they like, follow photo and status updates, leave comments and even join the conversation.

Similarly users can find out what music their friends are listening to and downloading, who they are following and which gigs they are attending. A recent activity feed makes it easy to stay up-to-date with status updates, conversations and music recommendations.

Users can also listen to 30-second previews of songs, find friends through connecting with Facebook and access custom top charts.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has compared Ping with the likes of Facebook and Twitter due to the similar following function that lets users follow friends to create a personal network. Jobs said it's like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes. "But it's not Facebook, it's not Twitter, it's a social network all about music," he added.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Ping already has access to an audience of 160 million iTunes users across 23 countries upon its launch.