MUMBAI: This time it's not the iPad or the iPhone, instead Apple has jumped into the social-networking business by introducing Ping, a service built into latest upgrade of iTunes, which has been developed keeping Ping in mind.

Ping is a music-centric portal that will allow users to follow their friends and discover new music allowing them to see what they are listening to. It will keeps you musically connected with recent activity showing what friends and artistes are up to, as well as celebrities. The service also builds playlists based on what your friends are listening to, allows users to make comments on songs and videos and purchase more songs from iTunes.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs described Ping as a combination of Facebook and Twitter for music. It centers around a newsfeed of what your friends are listening to and watching (like Status updates on Facebook) through iTunes. It provides custom song and album charts, as well as 17,000 plus concert listings and a deep integration with the full library of iTunes content,... said Jobs to the media 

Ping connects iTunes's 160 million plus users through iPhone and iPod touch.

Ping allows its users to interact with different artists as well. Artists want to get their music out to the masses, but they also want to make money. To make money on the web, they have to use their web presence to sell digital songs and albums. By getting people to interact with artists in iTunes, they hope to sell more digital records. Artists have the same goal, and deeper integration with iTunes might help them achieve it.

If Ping turns out to be a viable social network, Apple will be able to attract artists to create their own profiles and build their own followings, speculates the site.

The social music network, Ping was launched by Steve Jobs at a press conference held by Apple at the Yerba Buena Centre in San Francisco.