iTunes 10 with the Ping social network

The new version 10 of iTunes comes with a music social networking function: Ping.

Among the announcements made during Apple’s recent press conference (iOS 4.1, new iPod range, Apple TV), Steve Jobs also indicated that the new iTunes 10 would be put online in the near future. Gone is the era of the CD, with the iTunes logo being updated to a more modern look, with the interface also benefitting from a few changes like the new hybrid system which displays album covers.

The big new addition to iTunes 10 is the social network function. Ping is, according to Steve Jobs, a musical social network which is neither Facebook nor Twitter, but something new which allows users to discover music through iTunes. With Ping, it is possible to follow an artist, friends, find out what they are listening to and of course download related songs.

Ping will be made available to the more than 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries. In addition to iTunes 10, Ping will also be available on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The release of iTunes was also a good occasion for Steve Jobs to release a few figures: 11.7 billion song downloads, 450 million television episodes, 100 million films and 35 million books.