This is perhaps the most exciting news since the May launch of TomCruise.com: I’d like to welcome Britney Spears to our world. She (or rather her people) have launched both a Twitter account and a bloggy sort of site with near constant updates on her fascinating life.
Her new song Womanizer also jumped from no. 96 to no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s not for me, I’m more of a Disturbia fan myself.
The blog doesn’t appear to have any original content from Britney, other than the teleprompted videos like the one below. It’s also music free, which sort of seems to remove the point of visiting. She should embed some music from Imeem or iLike and get paid for all those streams. And link to Amazon or iTunes for downloads. Maybe a few less of the site visitors would use BitTorrent for all their music needs.
I’ll say this, though. This is solid gold for Twitter. A few more of these and it will be hard to argue that it isn’t going mainstream.
Like…. OH EM GEE, Britney’s back, bitches.
There’s no music embeds or affiliates because you’re suppose to be buying records and not stealing music.
no, i’m pretty sure all that imeem and ilike streaming stuff, and downloads from amazon and itunes, are legal.
like most ppl care about legal goods!
I’m aware that they’re legal. I meant, from a big RIAA-backed company perspective they’re not as good as an album purchase. If they streamed the single there’s no incentive to purchase anything. If they offered the affiliate there’s incentive to pirate the non-drm mp3.
I’m going to take off my Big CEO hat now to avoid hurting myself some more.
yeah, well, ok. but you’re thinking like the RIAA.
Do you guys have to buy that Britney image?
Mike,
Don’t look back.. that shark you just jumped might bite your ass.
http://instantrimshot.com/
Society has not seen a star capture the public’s imagination like this since the days of The Beatles and Elvis in the 50s & 60s.
It is amazing how America just became obsess with her.
In the 80s, it was all Michael Jackson and Madonna, but they were deliberately manufactured for the traditional media.
Britney is the first traditional media and Web 2.0 music Superstar combined
I’m not actually sure how combined they actually are – to me it seems like she (or rather her PR team) is only threading the social media water for now and doing some mistakes. I just hope the team will hear what bloggers advice to do for the venture to actually be a success.
It should be noted that, while some sites scan google trends for topics, techcrunch is using google zeitgeist 2007, running blog-business in old-school style.
slow news today?
i love how people think this is such an insightful, funny comment to leave.
What I don’t get is why people need to constantly monitor if news is ’slow’ or not. What matters is that a news source and market commentator is able to capture what the stuff that matters WHEN news is slow. And the fact that big ’stars’ go twitter is a trend worth mentioning and pretty essential for twitter – like it or not.
Anybody can bang out ‘fast’ news the day Apple presents new products. But real work is done the ’slow’ days in between (because the majority of the IT sector spends the fast news days at apple stores or online checking their credit card limits)
I love slow news days and I love Britney
stop being a suck up peter, ur actual comment has no content other than a vague defense for MA when it is not even needed, a chance to brown-nose perhaps?
Hey lolhead. I just love sucking up to MA, everybody knows so you don;t need to keep mentioning it. Love your nick. And what’s the content of your post again…
ok you’re off the hook, just try to keep the ingratiating down a notch. Ok, my content is as follows:
i agree that commenting that it’s a “slow news day” has become rather tiresome and was only mildly funny the first time around. If a short post like this does go up, and it is relevant by the way, then if it does signify that it is in fact a slow news day, then who the fuck cares, read the post or don’t Mr. John Nipple [sic]
i really clicked through to britneys site, which I thought I would never do in a million years. so it worked. super boring site. super boring twitter account. like reading ads or the telephone book, or both.
No worse than you thinking this was an insightful, relevant story to post
LOL come on man, what the hell did you think was gonna happen?
Greatest… post… EVERRRR! Screw the haterz, Mike, this rox. It can’t all be “Silicon Valley Flat Broke” and “Steve Jobs Craps Gold Doubloons.”
sometimes it just has to be about Britney.
Britney rules!!!
[Rules what?]
Sorry, but if she/her image was not *manufactured*, she would still have a career, because she could sing and dance, which she is not capable of doing. Remember her last [shameful] MTV show?
Michael,
Dave Matthews (@davejmatthews) just started twittering too – dmb > bs
BritZ i CoOl!I Luvez Her! LOlz…Gr8 PoSt!
briTney iz juzt ThE bezT ever. KeWl to zee her on TeChCrUnCh…… Now i JUzT hAve to daNcE *smiles*
God help me, but she is still so damn hot.
You probably remember her on her school uniform and pigtails… Yes, she WAS hot then. Now, after two babies and all that extra weight, not really: it showed on the MTV show…
Seriously? She may have had a few children, but that in no way makes her busted.
Pig tails or no pig tails, I couldn’t care less about her low-rent twitter account.
Love to see TC covering all the bases. (Not being sarcastic.)
Twitter doesn’t seem to have taken off in the UK as much as it has in other countries, but I find it interesting that even governmental offices, such as the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, have managed to get a Twitter presence before Miss Spears.
Hitwise reported twitter having faster growth in the UK than the US in July
http://weblogs....elligence-robin
Well that’s my theory out the window then…
Still on Twitter but wriggling away just a wee bit from the Americas…….
Twitter was the focus of a number of TV/news segments in Australia last
week after the Leader of the Opposition (in the Federal Government),
Malcolm Turnbull not only joined Twitter [ @turnbullmalcolm] but made
clear he was answering @replies personally.***
And as the hard edge of unrelenting political ambition thrust itself into
the nubile world of social media – and not without chaffing – across the
pond, the POMs were doing a lovely job at holding their end up.
The utterly brilliant (and almost pathologically polite) Stephen Fry was (&
still is) Tweeting his fingers to the bone from rapidly changing locations
across Africa as he films a new documentary series. (BBC?? not sure for whom)
Ooooh and in a majestic social media/citizen journo coup, @documentally and @sizemore got themselves into the locked-down Reuters offices (long
story!!) and tweeted and qik’d as Gordon Brown made his “We are all now Bankers” address to the Nation.
(not only was @documentally the closest in proximity to GB but his qik
stream coverage & tweets beat the BBC in real time ….. huge PR for both
platforms)
Now back to Britney…… just not from this little black duck.
_________________
*** Be it in his former “lives” as a Barrister and later, merchant banker or in
his current incarnation as a Member of Parliament, Malcolm = a bit hyper!!
Surely going to a Britney site looking for music misunderstands Britney…
Ladies and Gentleman…… we have a winner!!!
The funny thing… they are still not using the whole potential…
Quite obviously … the twitter account is not “written” by Britney herself…
Imagine what happens when really the first celeb starts to Twitter…
…another sign of Twitter going mainstream.
Realtor.org Field Guide to Twitter.
http://www.real...y/library/fg234
Everyone is loving Twitter. Wondering which celebrity will use it next
Thanks for this. It is nice to see that Duncan Riley has come back from the Inquisitor.
I got my first eye roll from my wife this morning.
“I love you honey but I am following Britney Spears on Twitter now”
Wow. This post sums it up right here: “Want to eat the same ice cream sandwich Britney did yesterday? http://www.diddyriese.com”
Complete marketing shit. Twitter is becoming infiltrated by these crappy marketing ploys.
“Maybe a few less of the site visitors…”
Don’t give up your day job Michael Arrington! Since when was the word “fewer” insufficient in a sentence such as this?
Are u new to TC? This is his 25/8 job…
Yup, still trying to undig someone who’s willing to pay $100m for his little outfit.
Great, now the paparazzi have an easier way of figuring out where Brittney is… just subscribe to her mobile updates. Quick everybody grab your cameras and lets go to LA…
/sarcasm
It’s not her that’s making updates, it’s her PR team. And they’re pretty bad at it… see this post: http://twitter....tuses/964300243
Unfortunately she probably doesn’t even know that she has the Twitter account, this making it irrelevant since it’s just her PR folks that are doing the account. Twitter is about transparency and being yourself, no one gives a shit about an account that a REAL celebrity had created by her team and run by her team.
She has also Facebook..omg!
Brittney and twitter what a mix!
Steve
grindvision.com
“Want to eat the same ice cream sandwich Britney did yesterday? http://www.diddyriese.com”
That’s some funny advertising.
maybe thats a revenue stream for twitter
charge celebrities to keep the stalkers and paparazzi away
i see loads of celebrities flocking to twitter and paying for a premium account for that
twitter management are you’ll listening ???
Skanky hoe, repent.
britney on twitter !! lol
Britney …. all the way to the bank !!! good or bad, manufactured or not.
Goodbye, twitter. Yet another site where the “real voices of real people” eventually becomes a tool of PR drones. Next!
I posted this before any one did, and britney is following me ..
http://twitter.com/kanyewest
Have you actually ready the twits in her account – blatantly written by some PR monkey. This is only gold for Twitter if they actually did do the Twitter posts themselves…
Common Mike, Really!!!
If you ever thought that Spears represented the main stream, please think again.
It isn’t the average mainstream guy who follows Spears in the real world anyway. It is pretty much the same crowd on the net, most of whom the young horny guys. Please!
If you thought the doctor who would never use twitter, would consider it because of Spears, think again.
If you thought the female architect with two kids will now be excited and enticed to tweet, think again.
To make tweeter reach mainstream, it takes much more than some flaky PR firm using naked dancers, no matter who.
Tweeter is pretty awesome, and I certainly hope it won’t have to rely on Spears to prove its worth. It’s a precursor to new inventions and more interesting to come.
Really.
Sorry for the wrong spelling. It’s twitter, right?
Well, I will say no more…
You should just stop talking now.
What will they call Britney’s Concert Tour
ITS THE LEGENDARY MISS BRITNEY SPEARS BITCHES!!!!
OMFG SHE IS LIKE THE BIGGEST CLEB IN THE WORLD!!!
I LOVE HER!
Hi, I’m Lauren Kozak, Britney’s Social Media Director (seriously). I must say, i hadn’t checked my google reader today and when i started getting word that Britney’s twitter was on techcrunch, i flipped out! Michael, thank you so much for writing about us (And not to totally suck up, but i’m a bit more starstruck by techcrunch than by Britney.) I also wanted to thank everyone who is giving us feedback while we find our stride in terms of authenticity and such.
Michael, there will be way more content from Britney and her inside circle… we just launched Thursday and have some great stuff up our sleeves.
~Lauren Kozak, Britney Spears’ Social Media Director
Good post Mike!
I think that Lauren is a bit confused, missing the point: “Michael, thank you so much for writing about us” –When the post is more about Twitter than it is about Britney’s “…fascinating life.”
Hi Kirsten! I know the post is about Twitter… and I was thanking Michael for writing about the Twitter and how we’re trying to really do celebrity social media in a new and all encompassing way. If you guys wanted to read about “Britney’s fascinating life” I don’t think you’d be here… there are other blogs for that.
why would you want twitter to go mainstream?
http://twitter....m/DaveJMatthews is the link for Dave Matthews on Twitter. He is pretty mainstream and much better musician than Brittney Spears.
Interesting that Britney (or her handlers) acknowledge the need for a Social Media Director. (And, btw, if they ever remake “The Love Boat” (again) that’ll totally be Julie’s new title.)
For what it’s worth, I think any tweet under a celeb’s handle ought to be by the celeb, not the team. If they don’t have the time or interest, then so be it.
@LanceArmstrong just started this week, as well, following his appearance at the Teradata users’ conference in Vegas. We blogged about it–but the tweets are clearly his, and he’s clearly feeling his way as he goes. My bet is that real participation by celebs of his visibility (and in tweets for his foundation under the @livestrong handle) will mainstream Twitter a lot faster than faux PR creations.
What’s interesting to me is that Britney (or her handlers) even acknowledge the *need* for a Social Media Director. (And, btw, if they ever remake “The Love Boat” (again) that’ll totally be Julie’s new title.)
For what it’s worth, I think any tweet under a celeb’s handle ought to be by the celeb, not the team. If the celeb doesn’t have the time or interest, then so be it.
@LanceArmstrong just started this week, as well, following his appearance at the Teradata users’ conference in Vegas. We blogged about it–but the tweets are clearly his, and he’s clearly feeling his way as he goes. My bet is that real participation by celebs of his visibility (and in tweets for his foundation under the @liveSTRONG handle) will mainstream Twitter a lot faster than faux PR creations.
Apologies for the double-post above (can’t delete the 1st one? so odd.), but one more thought:
If Britney’s team wants to be on Twitter, that’s OK, too — but the handle should be @TeamBritney.
Get over it. Twitter is dumb. It was always dumb. It will never be a good idea. You have always whored out Twitter like it was some great thing but it never was.The fact that some new media manager thought it was a good idea to post twitter updates doesn’t mean anything.
get
over
twitter
http://www.hulu...up-brit-bashing
Nice job by Joel McHale and The Soup on bashing the Womanizer video.
omg i want to work for britney!
Job Posting – Britney Spears 2.0 Media Manager.
Group Support for Michel Reverte Candidacy.
http://www.new....gid=67821447952
This women likely to be not real Britney Spears.
I LOVE THIS SONG…I THINK ITS HILARIOUS THAT IT HAS A “HIDDEN” MESSAGE IN IT! ITS A SONG ABOUT SOME CHICK
NAMED AMY..HELL EVEN I THOUGHT IT WAS UNTIL GOOGLED TO FIND OUT WHO AMY WAS AND CAME ACROSS THESE WEBSITE
THAT POINT IT OUT…ITS GREAT..KEEP IT UP
To make tweeter reach mainstream, it takes much more than some flaky PR firm using naked dancers, no matter who.
Britney Spears will be touring Australia along with Kayo Marbilus
myspace.com/kayomarbilus
“KAYO MARBILUS MYSPACE MUSIC BLOG PAGE MYSPACE.COM/KAYOMARBILUS”
Ex-TMZ photographer sues Britney Spears
A former TMZ photographer sued Britney Spears Friday over an incident in which his foot was run over.
Ricardo Mendoza filed a civil suit in Los Angeles claiming that Spears committed assault and battery when she ran over his foot in Beverly Hills on Oct. 18, 2007.
TMZ, which first reported the case, auctioned off his tire-stained sock and donated the proceeds to charity.
The incident happened at a turbulent time for Spears, who hours earlier had lost custody of her two sons.
Spears was accused of running over another photographer’s foot a month after the Mendoza incident, but prosecutors didn’t press charges, saying it was the photographer’s fault.
OZZY FILES SABBATH SUIT
Ozzy Osbourne has accused former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi of taking over the heavy metal titans’ name and costing him royalties from merchandise sales.
Osbourne, who lives in California, filed the lawsuit last week in New York, saying Iommi falsely claimed to have sole rights to Black Sabbath’s trademark, causing Osbourne to lose royalties on band merchandise that were formerly split 50/50.
The suit seeks damages, lost profits and a declaration that Osbourne is a half-owner of the trademark
Her new looks doesn’t look bad, she seems to be over the moon