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.
Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/technology/20myspace.html?pagewanted=print
March 20, 2007
MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users
By BRAD STONE
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.
At stake is the ability of MySpace, which is owned by the News Corporation,
to ensure that it alone can commercially capitalize on its 90 million
visitors each month.
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.”
Ms. Tequila, born Tila Nguyen, has attracted attention by linking to more
than 1.7 million friends on her MySpace page. To promote her first album,
she recently added to her MySpace page a new music player and music store,
called the Hoooka, created by Indie911, a Los Angeles-based start-up
company.
Users listened to her music and played the accompanying videos 20,000 times
over the weekend. But the Hoooka disappeared on Sunday after a MySpace
founder, Tom Anderson, personally contacted Ms. Tequila to object,
according to someone with direct knowledge of the dispute. She then vented
her thoughts on her personal blog.
MySpace says that it will block these pieces of third-party software – also
called widgets – when they lend themselves to violations of its terms of
service, like the spread of pornography or copyrighted material. But it
also objects to widgets that enable users to sell items or advertise
without authorization, or without entering into a direct partnership with
the company.
A MySpace spokeswoman said yesterday that the service did not remove
anything from Ms. Tequila’s page. “A MySpace representative contacted her
and told her that she had violated our terms of service in regards to
commercial activity,” the spokeswoman said. “She removed the material
herself, after realizing it was not appropriate for MySpace.”
Ms. Tequila and her representatives would not comment.
But Justin Goldberg, chief executive of Indie911, said MySpace’s actions
undercut the notion that the social networks’ users have complete creative
freedom. “We find it incredibly ironic and frustrating that a company that
has built its assets on the back of its users is turning around and telling
people they can’t do anything that violates terms of service,” he said.
“Why shouldn’t they call it FoxSpace? Or RupertSpace?” Mr. Goldberg said,
referring to the News Corporation’s chief, Rupert Murdoch.
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.
“Our users weren’t happy,” said Dalton Caldwell, Imeem’s chief executive,
who was nevertheless ambivalent about the MySpace ban because he thought
the move might encourage his users to visit his site directly. “If MySpace
isn’t really ‘their space’ after all, maybe users will think about things
differently.”
In the past, MySpace executives have said that the service failed to block
companies like YouTube that began successful businesses from MySpace’s
pages.
“We probably should have stopped YouTube,” Michael Barrett, chief revenue
officer for Fox Interactive Media, a part of the News Corporation, said in
an interview in late February. “YouTube wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for
MySpace. We’ve created companies on our back.”
MySpace and its corporate parent say they want to find ways to support and
exploit the growing widget economy. Last year, Fox Interactive Media
introduced a service called Spring Widget. The service provides tools to
help developers create widgets for use both on computer desktops and online
networks like MySpace.
In a recent use of its technology, the studio behind the horror film “Dead
Silence” used a Spring Widget tool on its promotional MySpace page to count
down the minutes until the film’s release.
Fred Wilson, a New York-based venture capitalist who invests in social
media companies, said the strategy showed that the News Corporation was
trying to take advantage of growing interest in widgets while also trying
to carefully control what made it onto MySpace.
But that could be a dangerous strategy, Mr. Wilson said.
“Every attempt everyone has ever made to try to dictate what a person’s
Internet experience will be has ended up coming up empty,” he said. “You
have to accept the fact that you are never going to be the be-all and
end-all of everyone’s experience. They are one click away from everyone
else on the Web.”
As for Ms. Tequila, who wrote on her blog that she was a personal friend of
Mr. Anderson, the MySpace co-founder, she wrote that she felt bad about
blasting the site but that she could not stay silent.
“You guys used to be so cool,” she wrote of MySpace. “Don’t turn into a
corporate evil monster.”