This is a music business story.<\/p>\n
Arianna Huffington didn’t know shit about the World Wide Web. She was just a tireless self-promoter who wanted to be famous.\u00c2\u00a0 A money hungry woman who married a gay Republican, then divorced him and switched sides.\u00c2\u00a0 This is someone to believe in?<\/p>\n
Of course not.<\/p>\n
Which is why hair metal died.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the bands tried to look dangerous but they were singing wimpy ballads.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t have it both ways.\u00c2\u00a0 James Hetfield doesn’t duet with Susan Boyle.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you might get a bit of publicity, some instant coin, but you alienate your core.<\/p>\n
Then again, Arianna had no core.<\/p>\n
She still doesn’t.<\/p>\n
When she ran for Governor of California, it was laughable.\u00c2\u00a0 She tried to crash other candidates’ press conferences.\u00c2\u00a0 No one would listen to her, no one cared.<\/p>\n
Then she started the Huffington Post.\u00c2\u00a0 Which was laughable at first, until she turned it into a links site.<\/p>\n
Come on, NO ONE reads the blogs on the Huffington Post.\u00c2\u00a0 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?\u00c2\u00a0 OF COURSE NOT!\u00c2\u00a0 So why would you be interested in these blogs, the only original content on the site!<\/p>\n
The reason the HuffPo got traffic was because of the interface and the sensibility.<\/p>\n
Didn’t Steve Jobs teach us looks make a difference?<\/p>\n
Then why are so many music sites so awful?<\/p>\n
Number one is Ticketmaster.\u00c2\u00a0 HuffPo’s got\u00c2\u00a0 ton of color.\u00c2\u00a0 Ticketmaster.com looks like a gray day on the east coast.\u00c2\u00a0 Like you’re sitting inside and have got nothing else to do but surf this lame site with antique fonts and little excitement.<\/p>\n
Sure, Ticketmaster can’t steal Jonathan Ive from Apple, but can they at least hire someone who knows what a site should look like?<\/p>\n
Or maybe even turn it into Google, very spare, with only one search box for your desired tickets.<\/p>\n
But at least both sites load fast.\u00c2\u00a0 They both know the less Flash the better, the greater stickiness you incur.<\/p>\n
Oh, did I tell you that links sites make less money on advertising than those featuring original content?<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no creativity in links sites.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re like a musical fad, the Macarena, they could end in a day, like the boy bands!\u00c2\u00a0 Especially in the coming era of apps.<\/p>\n
Now do you need money to make it?<\/p>\n
Look at Craigslist.\u00c2\u00a0 Clean interface, ultra-successful, built for next to nothing.<\/p>\n
Yet Craig Newmark eventually sold a piece to eBay.\u00c2\u00a0 Biggest mistake of his life.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re the thorn in his side.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Arianna did it the old way.\u00c2\u00a0 She signed to a label.\u00c2\u00a0 Which made her famous.\u00c2\u00a0 But then she had to do what the label said. She HAD to sell.\u00c2\u00a0 Her investors wanted that three hundred million CASH!<\/p>\n
Like an act is gonna tell the label what to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Ha!<\/p>\n
It’s about being independent.<\/p>\n
Look at Groupon.\u00c2\u00a0 They turned down that Google money.\u00c2\u00a0 They thought the offer was too low.\u00c2\u00a0 If Arianna truly believed in the HuffPo she would have said no.\u00c2\u00a0 But like a lame act that’s all flash and no substance she wanted the publicity, the acknowledgement, the glory of a big deal.<\/p>\n
Like appearing on the Grammys and being forgotten tomorrow.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Publicity, my ass.<\/p>\n
Arianna and her team built a company.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is now done.<\/p>\n
Do left-wingers really want to associate with AOL, which is like driving a Rambler?\u00c2\u00a0 Workable one day, but now history?<\/p>\n
And Tim Armstrong made his rep selling ads.\u00c2\u00a0 Where’s the cred there?<\/p>\n
And now they’re gonna let Arianna loose, telling the other bloggers what to do?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that like having to take musical advice from Britney Spears?<\/p>\n
But these bloggers are a ragtag bunch, the bottom of the barrel. And blogs don’t succeed on branding, but content.\u00c2\u00a0 And AOL’s got the worst.<\/p>\n
The sale of the HuffPo to AOL is an old school story.\u00c2\u00a0 About cashing in instead of going your own way and changing the landscape.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
Come on.<\/p>\n
You’ve got to have a good product…<\/p>\n
No, you’ve got to have a GREAT product.<\/p>\n
Me-too doesn’t work online or in music.<\/p>\n
And you’ve got to call your own shots.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
It’s about the long haul.\u00c2\u00a0 Staying in the game.\u00c2\u00a0 Not overnight success, but ENDURING success.<\/p>\n
Arianna Huffington…laughable.<\/p>\n
Are you laughable too?<\/p>\n
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