Apple Ping signs up 1m users in 48 hours

Apple announced last week that more than one million users signed up for Ping in the service's first 48 hours of availability. Ping, as apparently a million of you already know, is the music-focused social network built into iTunes 10, which the company released just last week. According to Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services, "One-third of people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping."

Ping lets you follow artists from Lady Gaga to "Weird Al" Yankovic, along with your friends. The service aims to let you see what your friends are listening to, liking, and purchasing within iTunes, and to share recommendations and insights with them.

Of course, Apple announced that Ping passed the million-member threshold last week, before the Labor Day holiday weekend. While it seems certain that the service must have added many more members since then, one wonders just how many additional folks Ping might reach were the Facebook Connect feature still available.

Personally, I find Ping a bit frustrating to use. The interface is clunky and the lack of notifications about new comments strikes me as confusing as, say, Lady Gaga's successful career. Still, AppleInsider reports that Apple has already made a few improvements to the service, removing spam and bogus accounts, and adding more navigation elements, so there's hope. Perhaps by the time Ping hits its 20 millionth member, the service will have evolved from Gaga-style novelty to Katy Perry-quality lasting power.