It’s no secret Apple launched Ping yesterday.  Ping in a nutshell is a social network built into iTunes to allow you to find new music, see what your friends like and follow your favorite artists.

Initial reaction seemed tepid.  I think a lot of people over looked the true reason Apple is doing this.  The reactions I saw seemed to think it will really hurt Myspace music and LastFM.

My opinion on Ping is its Apple’s first step in not only making music more social, but allowing them to encourage users to buy a lot more music.  Currently users have options they can stream music from Pandora (the most popular music app for the iPhone), GrooveShark, but the #1 music listening experience is iTunes with over 160 million accounts.  Apple needs these 160 million users to purchase more music and Ping is going to be the vehicle to do that.

A common example I use when describing how important social is for discovering things is Netflix.  I change the number of movies I receive at once probably 10 times a year simply because I have no idea what to rent.  Their recommendations system stinks and their integration with Facebook simply does not feel natural to me.  However, if they ever nailed it and I felt like the recommendations I was getting from friends were spot on I’d probably leave my plan alone and rent much more often.

Apple is going to tweak and tweak Ping until its essential in music discovery because they want you to buy.  You can already tell in the messaging throughout the service.

With the ability to preview all tracks in the social stream discoverability becomes instantaneous.  I’m excited about the service simply because I purchase a lot of music.  My current list of tracks purchased just crossed 2200 songs :)