I have no personal knowledge of this story and I don't know Tom (although he's my friend!), but I'd be amazed if Tom took the time to contact Ms. Tequila personally about her use of the Hoooka widget. MySpace has a boatload of customer service employees, and Tom's busy being Tom. My assumption is that someone told NYT reporter Brad Stone that Tom was involved, and it sounded good, so it made the story. MySpace's official reaction, which the piece also covers, makes much more sense: MySpace sent Tequila an e-mail demanding the removal of the widget for violating terms of service.
In any event, Mashable rightly points out that MySpace's move against Hoooka is likely because it's trying to better position the Snocap widget, which has a deal in place with MySpace. Snipperoo holds no punches, declaring that MySpace has turned into a Corporate Evil Monster.
Overall, I think trying to sell music directly through social networking sites is a short-sighted business. Like Internet content in general, there's just too much free stuff out there. The old music industry in particular is dying, and selling mp3s for indie bands won't save them. Advertising-supported free music is the future.
Article comments
1 - nottila
"I have no personal knowledge of this story and I don't know Tom"
What amazing investigative reporting.
Apparently the author is completely unaware that Tila Tequila is famous for being the most popular person on MySpace. She's one of the main faces of MySpace to the press. That is precisely why Tom would contact her personally.
2 - Eric Berlin
Yes, I know who she is and that she has 1.7 million friends. Still, with 80 million users I doubt that Tom would personally contact her to request that she remove a widget. There was no direct attribution of this in the NYT piece, which deepened my opinion.
3 - nottila
There is nothing amazing about the most visible founder contacting the most visible user. They have talked before.
"But her big break came three years ago when MySpace founder Tom Anderson invited Nguyen over to his new site."
4 - Eric Berlin
MySpace in 2003, very different situation than 2007. I don't buy the story as written, that Tom would contact Tequila "to object."