Edible Apple

Twitter today announced that it would be integrating Ping, Apple’s social networking service in iTunes, with Twitter. Users will now be able to share musical discoveries, song previews, and links to purchased and downloaded music from iTunes right into their Tweets.

On Ping you can easily link to your Twitter account to instantly find Ping users among the people you already follow on Twitter.

Once you’ve linked the accounts, whenever you Post, Like, Review, or tell your friends why you purchased a song or album on Ping, this activity will also be tweeted to your Twitter followers – complete with playable song previews and links to purchase and download music from iTunes.

When you click on a Tweet that’s sent via Ping or that contains an iTunes link, you’ll see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes, making the experience even richer.

Interestingly, Apple had previously spent months trying to reach an agreement to integrate Facebook with Ping. Facebook and Apple, however, were unable to reach a mutually agreeable decision after 18 months of negotiation. Was Twitter an afterthought to Apple’s original Ping plans, or was this deal negotiated concurrently with the failed Facebook initiative? Either way, Apple appears to be taking Ping quite seriously.