Apple's music social network Ping will be fading away September 30th, according to a splash page in the latest version of iTunes. Rumors had circulated a few months back claiming that Apple would phase out the product, which was originally launched on September 1st, 2010 alongside iTunes 10. Many of the initial impressions, including my own, were that the half-baked network would not be successful due to its limitation: Ping was Apple's way of going social, but it failed. However, not many users are saddened by the discontinuation of the service. It appears that there never was much general acceptance of the service.
In the future, Apple is going to be using Facebook and Twitter for sharing music. This was apparent after "Share On Facebook" and "Share On Twitter" buttons were introduced to the iTunes Store back in version 9 of the app. Nobody really knows why Apple felt Ping was a needed addition to the share functions. As of right now, users can share an item from the iTunes Store to Ping with the Post button, which allows a caption accompanying the content. There's also a Like button, which, just like Facebook's, let's a user's followers know that he liked something in the Store.
All these features were good and well, but everyone knew they had an expiration date. Not many users actually used Ping, which made it another idle product Apple had to stare at, and no active corporation has a need for these. So at the end of this month, whether you used it or not, say goodbye to Ping and hello to Facebook, Twitter, or no sharing at all.
Sources: 9to5Mac | Apple Press Release | CNET