MySpace is trying to tell artists what widgets they can embed on their myspace pages. Think again. The backlash will kill the whole site.
It will be nice to see it happen. (Meaning it will be nice to either see the crappy myspace fail, or a smarter myspace wake up and relax these silly restrictions.)

MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users
By Brad Stone for the NY Times.

Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded.
MySpace, the Web’s largest social network, has gradually been imposing
limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like
music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable
transactions…
But to some formerly enthusiastic MySpace users, the new restrictions
hamper their abilities to design their pages and promote new projects.
“The reason why I am so bummed out about MySpace now is because recently
they have been cutting down our freedom and taking away our rights slowly,”
wrote Tila Tequila, a singer who is one of MySpace’s most popular and
visible users, in a blog posting over the weekend. “MySpace will now only
allow you to use ‘MySpace’ things.”…
The tussle between MySpace and Indie911 underscores tensions between
established Internet companies and the latest generation of Web start-ups.
Without a critical mass of visitors to their sites, many of these smaller
companies are devising strategies that involve clamping on to sites like
MySpace and Facebook and trying to make money off their traffic.
MySpace, meanwhile, is trying to show that it can generate stable revenue.
Google will pay it at least $900 million over the next three years to serve
ads to the site’s users. And last fall, MySpace announced a partnership
with Snocap, a San Francisco-based company, to sell music.
Perhaps not coincidentally, this year, MySpace blocked widgets from Revver,
a video-sharing site that embeds advertisements in its clips, and Imeem, a
music buying service.

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That’s funny, I thought scalping was immoral and illegal, and that there were laws against it and stuff. It sure seems like it when the cops arrest people in front of venues for doing so.
I guess it’s OK when a corporation stands to make the profit from such practices.
What I want to know is: how are the increased ticket revenues going to make their way back to the artists? My guess is that they’re not. Consumers will be hit with exorbitant ticket prices (when ticket prices are already too high for many to even go to concerts anymore). So fewer people will go to shows, and that means smaller crowds for artists. Only Ticketmaster stands to benefit from this system. It will keep track of the auction prices. It will redistribute the profits as it sees fit.
The article says that “venue operators, promoters and performers will decide whether to participate,” but I wonder how many artists have enough weight to have any say in the matter. I wish that artists really did have the power to refuse to play concerts using this auction system. Some of the larger acts might be able to do this. It will really depend on which acts care about all of their fans, and which acts only care about their rich fans. Only time will tell.
Ticketmaster Auction Will Let Highest Bidder Set Concert Prices
By Chris Nelson for the NY Times.

With no official price ceiling on such tickets, Ticketmaster will be able to compete with brokers and scalpers for the highest price a market will bear.
“The tickets are worth what they’re worth,” said John Pleasants, Ticketmaster’s president and chief executive. “If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it’s actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket’s worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients – the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves – are saying to themselves, `Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker.’ ”
EBay has long been a busy marketplace for tickets auctioned by brokers and others. Late last week, for example, it had more than 22,000 listings for ticket sales.
Venue operators, promoters and performers will decide whether to participate in the Ticketmaster auctions, Mr. Pleasants said. In June, the company tested the system for the Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko boxing match at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The minimum bid for the package – two ringside seats, a boxing glove autographed by Mr. Lewis and access to workouts, among other features – was $3,000, and the top payer spent about $7,000, a Staples Center spokesman, Michael Roth, said.
Once the auction service goes live, Ticketmaster will receive flat fees or a percentage of the winning bids, to be decided with the operators of each event, said Sean Moriarty, Ticketmaster’s executive vice president for products, technology and operations.

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