Bada Bing Bada Boom Amanda

Hard to come up with a funny title for this post. Of course the biggest news in podcasting today is that the pretty blonde goddess of the video podcast is parting ways with Rocketboom. Why? No-one really knows. But I guess it drives home to me a couple of points.

1. New media brands can come and go quickly.
2. What happens to the advertisers who had bought long-term contracts with Rocketboom?
3. Who is representing the new talent? Is there an agency yet set up to represent their interests? We need standard contracts, etc. Think Creative Commons for the talent.

Whoever picks up Amanda will have the same burst of attention that PodTech got when they hired Scoble (check out the pretty graph). Snapping her up and offering her something big was clever. I think. But although she is a huge property today, will she be huge tomorrow? I don't know yet how much stock to put in the idea of talent in this world. In the days of yore, big names were partially big because their employers controlled the airwaves and could limit how many talents got a guernsey. It was limited supply. Carson was Carson, partly because he was a huge talent, but partly because he didn't have much competition. Today competition is limitless. Talent? Well I've known lots of people in my time who were talented but didn't have distribution. Today they can all have distribution if they want it. It'll be fascinating to see how this all pans out over the next decade. 

UPDATE: Andrew Baron's (her partner) statement on why she left.

Comments

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Have you made her an offer yet?
Molly

[Marc Orchant]

Cam: Brilliant. So may words have been spent on this two-way public snit and you cut right through the melodrama and summed up the really essential issues very nicely. Awesome post pal!

[James Smith]

I think the chances of getting standard contracts for talent is pretty much zero. All talent aint equal Cam. Also people aren't like sound files or books or other copyrighted material. You can't really ever make someone do something. In Australian and British law there's a long standing principle that contracts for personal services are not specifically enforceable. ie. You might be able to sue someone for breaking a contract but you can't make them tap dance. If you want a standard contract write one up, but will people agree to it? Or will the changes needed for each one to suit each person be so great that they aren't worth bothering with. I agree that there are lots of talented people out there but a lot of the talent is very raw. That's not to say it's not good. I enjoy a lot of podcasts because they exist outside the format contraints of radio and the necessity to appeal to a wide audience but it would be good if there was a little more "air checking" going on. A little less uming and arring, a bit more work on diction, getting to the point of the topic. Confidence in presentation. These are skills which I think anyone can pick up as long as they have the talent. Anyway I've gone a bit off topic. The answer to questions one two and three are simple. The market will work itself out.