The Velvet Rope, a music-industry gossip board where industry insiders, music journalists, and occasional rock stars have gathered for years, will be leaving AOL on 1 August, says moderator Julie Gordon. The reason? Gordon claims it's because she doesn't believe in deleting participants' swear words. Velvet Ropers say AOL's "terms of service" reeks of censorship; AOL simply says that members should pay an additional US$10 a month to be able to talk freely.
"In an industry dominated by images, the one place where CEOs and interns have an equal voice is in my little area," says the vivacious Gordon. "It's not because they wanted me to charge that I'm so pissed, but because they wanted me to charge for a Terms of Service exemption."
The Velvet Rope, part of the Mad About Music area of AOL, has existed in secret folders on AOL since 1993, and was officially signed on to AOL in fall 1995. The area is for members only, hidden from the public view and known solely by word of mouth - its reputation in the music business alone is responsible for the 6,000 to 7,000 regular members (the entire Mad About Music arena brings in about 70,000 people a month). Besides A&R reps from music labels, Rolling Stone editors, CEOs, and bands, the often catty and cutting area is even known to draw notables like Dave Navarro and Courtney Love.
"It's one of the few reasons I belong to AOL; it's a good resource," comments Velvet Rope habitué Jaan Uhelszki, news editor of Music Central. "If [Gordon] goes, I go too."
AOL's terms of service forbids profanity, a rule that Gordon followed until January, when she discovered that the ACLU section of AOL, open to all AOL members, had a partial exemption and was full of swear words.
Figuring that the Velvet Rope was a members-only area to which no children belong, Gordon stopped deleting all posts with swear words, and said AOL "looked the other way" until her contract came up last month. At that point, AOL told her that the only way she could avoid the TOS was to make Velvet Rope a $10 a month membership area, for which AOL would receive 20 percent of the fees. Gordon refused, and the Velvet Rope will now be departing AOL for the Web instead.
"She wanted her members to be able to come online and say whatever they want.... We do not grant exemptions from our terms of service," says AOL spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg. "You have to abide by the TOS." The ACLU exemption, Goldberg insists, was a "special case" because the group offered a "service and value to our members that no one else can provide."
Gordon's not buying it. "The ACLU should be pissed off that AOL will carve out an exemption for them, but charge anyone else for the same thing." This, she says, goes against everything the ACLU stands for.
"It's disappointing to hear that some groups feel that they can't stay on AOL because they're being censored," says ACLU director of communications Phil Gutis. "We think AOL's policy is extreme. That's why we took pains to make sure we had this operation exemption. I think adults can deal with dirty words. It's a huge mistake on AOL's part."
The news comes at a time when AOL is losing esteem in the eyes of many of its customers. The gaming channel premium pricing plan went into effect Tuesday. Gamers now must pay $2 an hour for games like hearts and bridge, with some perplexing pricing plans (players pay for a beta Mac version of the Air Warrior game, for example, while the PC version is free). The move has caused AOL gamers to cry foul, and many are abandoning ship. Several said the player numbers plummeted as charges started up, and "the hourly games are now ghost towns."
But despite the ire raised on the part of gamers who watched free games get cancelled and who must now pay to play other new games, AOL is eyeing the possibility of charging for more "premium" sections in the future, to make up for the financial drawbacks of flat-rate pricing.
"We have said that since we went to flat-rate pricing, there would be areas with added value," says Goldberg. "It's likely that we will be charging for other premium areas down the line."
Goldberg insists that the proposal to charge $10 a month for Velvet Rope access was different from the "premium channel" pricing. She aligns it with several other "Private AOLs" that already exist, some for monthly fees, such as ones that serve as resources for the pharmaceutical industry and veterinarians.
The new Web site may or may not be free of charge. As Gordon comments, "I wouldn't be loathe to charge if users could get other information and services. But do I think my gossip is worth $10 a month? No."
