Surprising absolutely no one, it seems that Apple's social music network Ping doesn't have the userbase that it needs in order to push onward. Therefore — according to AllThingsD — the company will officially kill Ping in the next official iTunes release.

Apple officially unveiled Ping on September 1, 2010 as a major feature of the then-brand-new iTunes 10. The pseudo social network was designed as a way for fans to keep track of the comings and goings of their favorite music makers, while sharing the tunes they love with other Ping users. At first, music lovers seemed enthusiastic about Ping, and in order to drum up support, the company had several high-profile artists — including Lady Gaga and Chris Martin of Coldplay — hop on board early.

Unfortunately, nothing could save Ping from eventually being a "me too" social network, with nearly all of its features easily replicated on already established social hotspots. Now that Apple is officially partnered up with both Facebook and Twitter, there seems to be no room in the company's portfolio to maintain it.

If you're a devote Ping user, you may take some comfort in the fact that the next major iTunes update probably won't take place until this coming fall, so you'll have at least a few more months to say goodbye.

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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