Yes, we've now been a few hours removed from the Apple announcements and one of the hot topics is the new Ping service, included in iTunes. For those who haven't heard, Ping is Apple's foray into creating a community based around music. The obvious, next thing to say is "Well, didn't Zune start that trend a few years ago with Zune Social?" You would be right, young Jedi but now we're in 2010 and the comparison is between 2010 Zune Social vs. 2010 Ping.

Now you can make your own judgments about Ping vs Zune Social, in fact I encourage it (nothing like some healthy fanboy debate over which network makes social more social), but I'm going to take a different track and say I'm glad that Apple is even doing a social network at all.

I know... *gasp* *shock* *horror* *asterisks*

For far too long, images of music listening involved people sitting around somewhere (be it on a bus, in a lounge chair or even in their car) with their ears plugged up listening to music by themselves. If you wanted to share songs with a friend, what did you do? You made them a cassette tape.

Now, in these new days of technology, music sharing and discovery graduated far past creating a mixtape. Now you can instantly send songs, playlists and recommendations to friends via services like Zune and Last.FM. Apple is now getting in on that bandwagon with a service that allow its members to see feeds and find out what their friends are up to when they're using the iTunes service.

I know. I'm a Zune MVP, but I'm a music lover first. I'm also a person who will always support something that will allow people to begin integrating music and communication into their lives. While Ping sounds pretty bare-bones on the surface, the fact that it's available is a nice step forward. I also think of the indie bands who may have followings we don't know about. Having something like Ping available gives another avenue for these indie groups to step out and showcase themselves.

However, in considering the effectiveness and impact Ping will have for its iTunes consumers this brings me to Zune Social -- if I may go on a side note for a second. When I first started using Zune Social, I was all over the place with that service. I was in forums, sharing messages, songs, asking questions. Now? Not so much. See, we're ready to say that Apple copied Zune, but I want to know how many people will actually use either service. Apple can tout all of the potential members it wants, but let's see how many people actually use Ping. Zune has about 3 million users, but how many take strong advantage of the social?

Other than syncing my friend's Zune cards to my device so I can get a collective sampling of what they're listening to, what other purpose right now does Zune Social have for me? It's a topic that we've brought up before, but as people who genuinely want to see Zune succeed in this music-sharing space, the fact that Apple even has something now on the table, should tell Zune Social they need to step that game up.

However, on a broader scale, I welcome Ping to the community. We all should be seeing music as a social experience (I mean hell do you really go to clubs, concerts and festivals just to stand there or do you on some level interact with everyone around you?) and I'm glad there's another channel by which music can become part of this social circle.

What do you guys think about anything written here: the state of Zune Social, the introduction of Ping, the effectiveness of creating a community revolved around music? Sound off, #ZuneNation!

Update (9/3/2010): I guess I spoke too soon about that whole Ping helping indie groups thing. Turns out that Ping, as of now, is invitation-only which essentially leaves lesser-known and independent groups on the outside looking in. I don't get why it's invitation-only. Oh and it's not playing well with Facebook. Now had Zune had these sort of initial problems, you'd be hearing it about it everywhere and on sky writing.

Geezus Radio Shack! Here I am trying to defend Ping, in the sense that creating a music community is always a good thing and they can't even get out of the gate without stumbling (well, falling actually). I draw your attention to this review of Ping given over at TechCrunch. Unless Apple gets on the repair ball this whole endeavor will flounder.