Gawker: valleywag, dani dudeck

Michael Arrington wants you to read about MySpace Music, not his love life

Owen Thomas — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:18:59 EDT

If you didn't believe our report that TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is in bed with MySpace's top flack, Dani Dudeck, read the obsessive startup blogger's latest story on MySpace Music, which claims that MySpace has "streamed" 1 billion songs. Considering that most MySpace profiles are set to start playing a song, whether you like it or not, as soon as you visit them, that's not that impressive. Arrington leads his story by comparing MySpace streams to iTunes sales, and then acknowledges it's not a "fair comparison." His readers, in the comments, went much further, citing our report and questioning whether the affair with Dudeck clouded Arrington's judgment. Those comments have been — what's the word? — unpublished.

Michael Arrington's MySpace Music review, the 100-word version

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:00:00 EDT

We know what TechCrunch's Michael Arrington got out of sleeping with MySpace PR executive Dani Dudeck: Screenshots of MySpace Music before the service launched. But what was Dudeck's quid to Arrington's quo? To find that, it's worth examining all the nice things Arrington has posted about her employer over the past couple of months.

On MySpace's Data Availability, a feature which lets MySpace users link their profiles to other services like Twitter, versus Google's similar Friend Connect, he wrote:

MySpace is taking a much more interesting approach than Google.

In an early post about MySpace Music, Arrington gushed:

Music almost certainly plays a part of MySpace’s continued dominance of Facebook.

About MySpace friend-in-chief Tom Anderson's hacking back in the 1980s, Arrington dutifully wrote:

Frankly, my opinion of Tom Anderson just rose significantly.

A week before MySpace Music launched, Arrington quit playing games and just posted free ads for the service. None of that approached the review Arrington gave MySpace Music the morning it launched.

MySpace has done something incredible at a big picture level: they’ve created both a compelling music experience for users as well as a realistic, long term business model for labels and artists in a world where recorded music moves towards free. Depth of catalog and usability is far beyond what other free streaming services like Last.fm and iMeem currently offer. And when it comes to listening to music, the pop out player, pictured above, is excellent. It’s a great resource for users, and it’s likely to become the center of the revenue ecosystem for artists, particularly unsigned artists starting to make a name for themselves. Indie labels are in a great position, too. A lot of positive press is rolling in around this launch, and it’s much deserved.

Michael Arrington pounding his MySpace source

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:00:00 EDT

When TechCrunch, the blog for startup fetishists, published leaked screengrabs of MySpace's just-launched music service, Michael Arrington wrote: "We’ve been pounding our sources for screenshots of the new service for weeks without any luck." Now we know what he meant. A tipster tells us, and another source confirms, that Arrington's been dating Dani Dudeck, MySpace's VP of global communications, for months.

We're told Dudeck leaked Arrington not only the MySpace Music screenshots, but also tipped him to a story about MySpace friend-in-chief Tom Anderson's brush with the FBI as a hacker in the 1980s. The article served to burnish Anderson's rather questionable geek credentials.

MySpace has helped Arrington's business in other ways besides feeding him stories. The News Corp.-owned social network was a major sponsor of the recent TechCrunch50 conference.

Arrington has no issue bragging privately about his relationship with Dudeck. And Dudeck, our source says, has "no issues to sleeping with key influencers." Before Arrington, we hear, the rumor was Dudeck dated MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe.

But don't believe us — let's go to the tape. Check out this clip of DeWolfe and Dudeck together at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, caught by Kara Swisher for AllThingsD. The way Dudeck leans in to DeWolfe to stay warm tells you more than any of our anonymous sources.

Kara's quippy response — "You don't have to love me" — reminds me of an anecdote my boss once related about Dudeck. The flirtatious MySpace flack accosted him at a conference last year and said, "We really need to work on our relationship." Sorry, Dani — Owen doesn't swing that way.

MySpace requests friends in San Francisco

Megan McCarthy — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:29:03 EDT

MySpace threw a swanky gathering last night at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art after News Corp. megamogul Rupert Murdoch and MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe's keynote at the Web 2.0 conference. I'd like to tell you more about the fancy guests (there were tons!), L.A.-style atmosphere, and crowd of gawkers who surrounded a Yoda-like Rupert Murdoch, but Valleywag was unceremoniously booted from the party once Dani Dudeck, MySpace's overanxious PR head, found out we were there. (Embedded, above, is Kara Swisher from AllThingsD's take on the scene.)
I can report however, that for the 20 or so minutes we were able to duck security, we spotted a few Valley notables rarely seen in the wild.

For example, Greylock VC David Sze, who lead Greylock's $25 million investment round into Facebook last year. Missing from the party? Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, rumored to be tied up with the funding deal he's so close to closing. Were you there? See anything else interesting? Please share.