How to use Apple's New Music Social Network, Ping, on your iPod

This excerpt from iPod: The Missing Manual, 9th Edition shows you how to get started with Ping, Apple's music social network.

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Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr—if there’s anything the top social-networking sites have proved, it’s that people like to share stuff with their friends. And now there’s Ping, Apple’s very own social network designed to connect people who have a mutual love of music.

In case you had any doubt what Ping was supposed to be, Steve Jobs himself described it as “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes” when he introduced the service in September 2010. (While Ping was originally supposed to link with Facebook through the Facebook Connect service so you could easily update your profile with your Ping activities, a case of “unfriending” between Apple and Facebook prevented the partnership. So far, anyway.)

As with any social network, the first thing you have to do is set up your profile page, your own little part of Ping where you can list your favorite bands and artists, keep track of upcoming events, exchange notes with other music-minded pals, and listen to samples of what your friends are listening to on iTunes.

To set up your Ping profile:

• Click the Ping link in the Source list. Apple doesn’t force all iTunes users to join, so you have to click a button that says Turn On Ping and agree to the legal disclaimer about using the service and privacy.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Fill in your personal details. Like most social-networking sites, you fill in your name, the city where you live, and other information. You can also add a photo to your profile page. Since this is a music-themed service, you can announce your three favorite genres of music on your page, too. You can tell as much or as little about yourself as you want, and even select up to eight iTunes tracks (complete with audio samples) to display on your page. People who follow you see your info (they see your Ping status updates and iTunes purchases as you make them), and, in return, you can see theirs if you follow them.
  
  
• Adjust privacy settings. As part of the Ping profile setup, you’re asked how public you want to be so other members can find you. You have three choices. You can let everyone else on the service look at and “follow” your profile page—whether you know them or not, which is a good way to find new friends (and sometimes stalkers). You can also make your basic profile visible to others only after you give them permission to see it. And lastly, you can hide your page from everyone and just use it as a personal place to track concert listings.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Find friends. Once you set up your profile page and privacy settings, Ping encourages you to find other media lovers on the service. You can search for the email addresses of people you know and invite them to be your Ping friends. At the same time, your friends—and links to their Ping pages—appear on your own patch of Ping real estate.

Once you get Ping set up, it works just like any other social network. You can post your thoughts on the current state of music—and read those of your Ping friends. You can sign up to follow bands and musicians who use Ping—to see what Lady Gaga, Yo-Yo Ma, and others are up to, for example. You can write your own album reviews, comment on friends’ pages, browse music news, and check concert listings for your favorite groups. You can click the Like button next to albums or tracks to publicly post your approval.

Items you buy in the iTunes Store get listed on your Ping page, so everyone knows what you’re into these days. If you’d rather keep your ‘80s synth-pop addiction a secret, hide your purchases by clicking the Remove button next to the item on your Recent Activity feed.

If you use the handy Ping sidebar to see what your pals are listening to, you’re not chained to the desktop for updates. On the iPod Touch, tap Home→iTunes→Ping to call up a mini version (right) and keep up with Ping things while you’re out.

lf you decide that Ping isn’t for you and you want to turn it off, click the Account link on the main Store page and log into your iTunes account. On the Account Settings page, click the buttons to either edit your profile (which you can also do from a link on your Ping page itself) or turn off Ping for good.