Can Tila Tequila Beat the Record Industry?

Tila Tequila has more friends on MySpace than anyone expect for Tom. Tom has a lot of friends because he’s everyone’s default friend. Tila appears half naked in her pictures…hence her high friend total. Oh, and she also writes and performs music.

She just released her first independent single, “I Love U”, through iTunes and the press hook is: “Can 1.8 million friends replace a record label?”

In this case no. No it can’t. (As of this writing the single hasn’t even broken the iTunes Top 100.) Despite her best efforts to frame it has part of a revolution, she has two things going against her:

1. The song is just plain awful.
2. Her friends are “empty friends” – they have no vested interest in her or her work. Look at her comments it's almost all spam. Basically, she’s just hot top 8 material. 

This brings me to a thought I’ve often had: What is the value of a friend on MySpace? Is it better to have masses and masses of "friends" as a result of serial adding? Or to have a smaller, more dedicated friends list who will evangelize and share your work? Frankly, I’d take the latter.

My prediction: The single flops and the press proudly announces social marketing doesn’t work.