Apple's Ping Makes a Cameo on 'Pitch Perfect' Only to Never Be Seen Again

It's not unlike the tech world to silently kill an unsuccessful product. In the case of Apple, they didn't want the world to know that their iTunes Ping was a total flop, so they just acted like it never existed.

Ping was the company's attempt to get in on the social media surge of the early 2010s. The platform was meant to connect artists and fans by allowing them to seamlessly share information and announcements. Plus, users were able to share music recommendations with their friends.

It was launched on Sept. 1, 2010 across Apple products. However, its 1 million user base didn't last and two years later the product was completely closed down. Instead, Apple integrated Facebook and Twitter into iTunes a bit, allowing users to utilize their existing social media platforms rather than create something new.

Ping's failure can't be attributed to any one thing, especially since the company was quiet about removing it and thus didn't offer too much of an explanation. However, one major challenge they faced was spam.

After Ping went live, scammers made fake profiles with promises of free products like iPhones, targeting individuals in an effort to get personal information and money, according to a report from Read Write Web.

Artists profiles were flooded with scammers commenting, hoping to entice fans into their scheme. The report indicated that Ping appeared to be missing even a simple spam filtration system that even small blogs of the time were able to adopt.

Only making matters worse, fake accounts of artists swiftly became an issue, too. "To be precise: As of 11am Pacific Time I was not aware of a Ping account in my name. At present I don't know who created said account. Ping?" wrote musician Ben Folds on Twitter.

It's possible that Apple was making automated profiles for musicians to reserve them, but it doesn't look like the matter was ever really cleared up and security experts continued to see Ping as a concern as a result.

Amid all these issues, a feature disappeared from Ping pretty early on. It was supposed to have Facebook integration, but that partnership fell through.

It was reported by the Wall Street Journal that Steve Jobs felt Facebook wanted "onerous terms that we could not agree to." Apple launched it, nonetheless, which ultimately resulted in a block from Facebook.

As a result, the integration was yanked from use and it became a bit more difficult to find your friends on Ping. "You can type their names into search or send them e-mails inviting them to join," suggested Steve.

We promise there is proof of this mythical-feeling social media platform. If you watch back Pitch Perfect, you'll see a glimpse of Ping while they are trying to use iTunes for backing music.

"I'm the only person who remembers Ping and the only evidence of it is in 'Pitch Perfect,'" said frustrated TikToker, technopat3. He pointed out the Ping cameo during a video rant.