Cupertino-based software developer Apple announced that iTunes reached another important milestone in its development process. To be more precise, Apple announced the release of iTunes 10. This is a major upgrade, an upgrade that brings an important new enhancement to the table.

The enhancement I am talking about is Ping, a new music-oriented social network. Thanks to Ping social music discovery you can follow your favorite artists and you can follow your friends to see what music they like – what music they downloaded, what music they’re listening to, things like that. Furthermore you can tell your friends about your favorite albums and songs, post your thoughts and opinions, view concert listings, and tell your friends what concerts you plan to attend.

“iTunes is the number one music community in the world, with over 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries, and now we’re adding social networking with Ping,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With Ping you can follow your favorite artists and friends and join a worldwide conversation with music’s most passionate fans.”

Let’s recap what you can do with Ping in iTunes 10:
- Follow your favorite artists, like you do on Twitter. Check out their posts, videos, tour dates.
- Create an iTunes profile and let your friends follow you. You can tell your friends what you’re listening to, what artists you follow, what concerts you plan to attend.
- Follow your friends and find out what they’re listening to, what concerts they will attend, and so on.
- In the Recent Activity feed you can view your friends’ posts about artists, albums, songs and concerts.
- View a consolidated Top 10 list of the songs and albums your friends and the artists you follow are downloading from iTunes

The introduction of Ping is just one of the new things you can expect to get from iTunes 10. The second notable change is the introduction of a new icon.

If you would like to get iTunes 10, you can download it here.