This is a music business story.

Arianna Huffington didn’t know shit about the World Wide Web. She was just a tireless self-promoter who wanted to be famous.  A money hungry woman who married a gay Republican, then divorced him and switched sides.  This is someone to believe in?

Of course not.

Which is why hair metal died.  Because the bands tried to look dangerous but they were singing wimpy ballads.  You can’t have it both ways.  James Hetfield doesn’t duet with Susan Boyle.  Sure, you might get a bit of publicity, some instant coin, but you alienate your core.

Then again, Arianna had no core.

She still doesn’t.

When she ran for Governor of California, it was laughable.  She tried to crash other candidates’ press conferences.  No one would listen to her, no one cared.

Then she started the Huffington Post.  Which was laughable at first, until she turned it into a links site.

Come on, NO ONE reads the blogs on the Huffington Post.  Who gives a shit what nine thousand nobodies have to say? Do you stop people in Times Square to ask them their opinions on the war and food?  OF COURSE NOT!  So why would you be interested in these blogs, the only original content on the site!

The reason the HuffPo got traffic was because of the interface and the sensibility.

Didn’t Steve Jobs teach us looks make a difference?

Then why are so many music sites so awful?

Number one is Ticketmaster.  HuffPo’s got  ton of color.  Ticketmaster.com looks like a gray day on the east coast.  Like you’re sitting inside and have got nothing else to do but surf this lame site with antique fonts and little excitement.

Sure, Ticketmaster can’t steal Jonathan Ive from Apple, but can they at least hire someone who knows what a site should look like?

Or maybe even turn it into Google, very spare, with only one search box for your desired tickets.

But at least both sites load fast.  They both know the less Flash the better, the greater stickiness you incur.

Oh, did I tell you that links sites make less money on advertising than those featuring original content?

And Arianna saying link sites are part of the DNA of the Web is like Rupert Murdoch saying MySpace is the ultimate in social networking.  Huh?  There’s no creativity in links sites.  They’re like a musical fad, the Macarena, they could end in a day, like the boy bands!  Especially in the coming era of apps.

Now do you need money to make it?

Look at Craigslist.  Clean interface, ultra-successful, built for next to nothing.

Yet Craig Newmark eventually sold a piece to eBay.  Biggest mistake of his life.  They’re the thorn in his side.

I’d say AOL is the thorn in Arianna’s side, but she doesn’t even know what the site should be, she’s so busy being famous, the gentleman who steered her online, Kenneth Lerer, he’s now gone.

Arianna did it the old way.  She signed to a label.  Which made her famous.  But then she had to do what the label said. She HAD to sell.  Her investors wanted that three hundred million CASH!

Like an act is gonna tell the label what to do.  Ha!

It’s about being independent.

Look at Groupon.  They turned down that Google money.  They thought the offer was too low.  If Arianna truly believed in the HuffPo she would have said no.  But like a lame act that’s all flash and no substance she wanted the publicity, the acknowledgement, the glory of a big deal.

Like appearing on the Grammys and being forgotten tomorrow.

If you think it’s about publicity, you don’t know that Mumford & Sons is higher on the chart than the Black Eyed Peas, that the U.K. band has sold almost as many albums as Katy Perry.

Publicity, my ass.

Arianna and her team built a company.  Which is now done.

Do left-wingers really want to associate with AOL, which is like driving a Rambler?  Workable one day, but now history?

And Tim Armstrong made his rep selling ads.  Where’s the cred there?

And now they’re gonna let Arianna loose, telling the other bloggers what to do?  Isn’t that like having to take musical advice from Britney Spears?

But these bloggers are a ragtag bunch, the bottom of the barrel. And blogs don’t succeed on branding, but content.  And AOL’s got the worst.

The sale of the HuffPo to AOL is an old school story.  About cashing in instead of going your own way and changing the landscape.

Mark Zuckerberg wants to change the world, he’s independent, this inexperienced pipsqueak gets to make all the calls and Arianna Huffington sells out to some slick ad salesman?

Come on.

You’ve got to have a good product…

No, you’ve got to have a GREAT product.

Me-too doesn’t work online or in music.

And you’ve got to call your own shots.  If you’re in a creative endeavor and you don’t get final cut, you’re beholden to bean counters, who don’t only lack vision, but are focused on the dollar.

It’s about the long haul.  Staying in the game.  Not overnight success, but ENDURING success.

Arianna Huffington…laughable.

Are you laughable too?