Nice Move, Apple: Michael Jackson’s New Song A Ping Exclusive

In a clear attempt to drive more traffic to its music-based and iTunes Store-oriented social network, Ping, Apple managed to grab an exclusive from Michael Jackson’s upcoming posthumous, a new single called “Much Too Soon”. The song, in fact, can only be streamed on Apple’s Ping through Jackson’s official artist page, and as you can guess you have to sign up for Ping to view the page.

While there’s quite a debate going on whether this new MJ album actually features MJ or not, this is undoubtedly a clever move for Apple which I’m certain will drive lots of extra traffic to the service, especially from people who didn’t think would sign up for Ping at first – e.g. Jackson’s loyal fans.

Michael Jackson’s new album will be released on December 14th. [via MichaelJackson.com]