I guess it was only a matter of time. Wherever there are people (of which MySpace has roughly 18 million) and there is the ability to connect with said people in a free and simple way (which is what MySpace is all about), companies and advertisers will flock like Michael Jackson to the local kindercare.

The question is, should these companies and advertisers be forced to head down the proper channels to reach this audience, or given that MySpace has provided the tools and the built in audience for free, should companies and advertisers be allowed to cleverly use MySpace’s toolsets to cut MySpace completely out of the transaction?

Case in point, Threadless.com. I love Threadless, and I think their whole model is extremely neat in that users create clothing and other users vote on the coolness of the clothing. The cooler the clothes, the higher the score…and the high scoring items are sold on the site. Their whole model is built on their leveraging a free and willing community to turn a profit for thier business, so naturally it is not surprising that they have spun off a MySpace profile that they are using to push the hell out of their shirts, and to build a little interactive community around their product.

Perfect product for the perfect audience…and without paying a dime to MySpace for the real estate.

Now being an employee of the company that owns MySpace, I have some vested interest here…but moreover, this was just an interesting use of a MySpace profile that I wanted to point out, and a question I wanted to ponder aloud. Frankly…I am surprised that it has taken this long for companies like Threadless to use the system in such a way.