MySpace has blocked artist/apparent pornstar Tila Tequila from posting an Indie911 Hoooka widget/MP3 store on her MySpace page, and apparently, MySpace executives are considering banning other third-party music widgets as well.

It was only a matter of time until MySpace started playing rough. After all, the site gets a cut when an artist or label sells an MP3 through a MyStore/SnoCap widget, but it doesn’t see a penny from other sales. And since MyStore contracts are non-exclusive, there’s otherwise nothing to stop the artists on MySpace from using whichever store they please, rather than MySpace’s offering.

It’s not surprising that MySpace would block third-party stores, but the trend doesn’t bode well for the site’s sustainability. One of the best things about tools like MySpace is that they let you create and modify an online presence without needing to know any code, embedding your other online presences into the MySpace page to create a sort of unified front for your social life — or your band life, if you’re in a band. While writing this post, for instance, I managed to create a MySpace page, turn this Listening Post blog into a widget, and embed that widget onto the MySpace page, but those days could end if the site clamps down on outside code.

When I met with Indie911’s CEO and founder Justin Goldberg last month, after he touted their upcoming Tila Tequila widget’s availability on MySpace, I asked him what Indie911 would do if MySpace started blocking their Hoooka widgets. He speculated that if they did, they would be going down a “rickety path” that would cause the site to fail due to being overly restrictive.

Remember what happened to Friendster? There’s nothing in the Constitution that says all bands have to use MySpace to promote their music. If MySpace becomes a closed system, or otherwise bars people from embedding what they want to embed, it’s not to hard to imagine that another social network with a more open policy is waiting in the wings, and would gladly take over.

By Eliot Van Buskirk
From Wired Magazine

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