The Ping is dead! Long live the Ping!

Over at Cult Of Mac, speculation that Apple is going to try a social-network-music thing again.

Oh, sure, they got burned by Ping, but this time it'll be different:

Apple’s social service would no doubt give people the opportunity to establishing lasting connections, but the default will likely be to erase connections and dissolve the networks when everyone leaves.

More importantly, Apple could achieve what Ping never could, which is to give people the means to share and socially discover music and other content, always with the added benefit of offering a path to purchase for that content.

The USP seems to be that Apple won't store your data forever - Cult Of Mac describe this as "consequence free sharing", which would probably be useful if you find your curiosity driving you to listen to the Barron Knights one more time.