Apple's Ping to kill MySpace?

OPINION: This post was originally published on Mashable.com

If I were MySpace, I would be shaking in my boots.

Earlier today, Apple launched iTunes 10, the latest rendition of its wildly popular music software. Really though, iTunes 10 is just a vessel for Ping, Apple's new music-centric social network. Available immediately to iTunes's 160 million+ users through the desktop, iPhone and iPod touch, Ping is a social network where users can follow their friends and their favorite artists.

As Apple CEO Steve Jobs described it, Ping is Facebook + Twitter for music. It centers around a newsfeed of what your friends are listening to and watching through iTunes. It provides custom song and album charts, as well as 17,000+ concert listings and, of course, deep integration with the full library of iTunes content.

Ping's potential effect on MySpace

It's no secret that MySpace is on the decline. Facebook won that war more than a year ago and continues to flourish. In a bid to stay relevant, MySpace has been rolling out new features and pivoting its strategy towards a younger generation with a focus on entertainment and music content.

But why go to MySpace Music when you can go straight to the source?

MySpace has become a destination for music lovers to follow their favorite artists and get the music and video content they crave. Artists in turn are on MySpace because it's still a good distribution channel for their work.

But why should an artist spend time on MySpace when they could potentially make a lot more money with Ping?

MySpace may have a new homepage, but Ping has iTunes, and that's the key to why it's such a threat to MySpace. Unlike most of the web's socially-inclined users, artists haven't abandoned MySpace. Ping will make them reconsider.

Artists want to get their music out to the masses, but they also want to make money. To make money on the web, they have to use their web presence to sell digital songs and albums. While 50 Cent has a great MySpace page, you should quickly note where he directs you to preorder his new album: iTunes.

Wouldn't it be easier to get people to preorder right from within iTunes? Yes, and that's what Apple is hoping will happen. By getting people to interact with artists in iTunes, it hopes to sell more digital records. Artists have the same goal, and deeper integration with iTunes will surely help them achieve it.

Nail in the coffin

Let's be clear: MySpace isn't dead, and it will continue to exist in one form or another for the foreseeable future. But if Ping turns out to be a viable social network, Apple will certainly be able to attract artists to create their own profiles and build their own followings. MySpace will lose its edge and fall even further.

While we love what MySpace has been doing to revamp its interface and turn things around, having Apple and Facebook as direct competitors simply may be too much of an obstacle to overcome. It will have to get creative in order to retain its users and, more importantly, keep artists from jumping ship to Ping.

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- Mashable.com