Steve Rubel wrote an
entry on Tuesday discussing how talent agencies are coming around to realize that there's a large pool of talent on the Internet just waiting to be plucked. Of course, the impetus for Rubel's post was the recent Rocketboom divorce, but he makes a good point about the growing number of Internet stars being signed offline.
The talent marketplace is about to get flattened like a pancake. It won't take long before the agencies recognize that there's an incredible pool of untapped talent they can secure on the cheap -- right from their desktops. If they can identify the stars who will transcend the online world, they can resell their services at a higher premium to studios and advertisers eager to put credible people in front of the cameras.
I don't think that it's so much that the agencies are recognizing out of the blue that there's all of these talented people kicking around. I think it's more that agencies are starting to identify the Internet as a credible audition platform. Perhaps that's what Rubel meant - not sure.
While the struggle is certainly one-sided, I do believe that agencies sometimes have a hard time sifting through the wannabes from those who truly have talent and are marketable. Before Internet media became so prolific, the only way to source such people was to go with recognized names, or sit through days of auditions and face shots. Now all an agent has to do is turn on You Tube and start scanning.
I've just decided that I should treat every podcast I do as an audition. You never know who's going to come calling!
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