Apple Ping was Apple’s short-lived attempt at turning iTunes into a social network for music fans, launching on September 1, 2010, as part of iTunes 10. The idea was simple: follow your favorite artists, see what songs your friends were buying, share playlists, and comment on music—all inside iTunes. At first, it hyped big names like Lady Gaga and U2, but it quickly faced problems: clunky integration, spam issues, and no real Facebook or Twitter support beyond a brief connection. Apple tried small updates, like better artist pages and a few social tweaks, but the platform never caught on. Less than two years later, in September 2012, Apple pulled the plug, quietly replacing Ping with deeper Facebook and Twitter sharing in iTunes 11.