Yesterday, I wrote about Pondango. More specifically, while I said I was intrigued by the concept, I was worried that there didn't appear to be any protection for podcasters to ensure that they were paid by station directors.
Lee Gibbons, Founder and CEO of Podango, read my post and responded to me via email. In part, Lee says:
"We (Doug Smith, my biz partner and I) absolutely would never intend to create a means of cutting podcasters out of any money at all. On the contrary, we absolutely insist that Station Owners allocate fair portions of their revenues to podcasters. We also have the payment system set up to distribute funds directly to podcasters, as opposed to passing it through the SDs. Finally, any podcaster who wishes to can start their own station, and compete with a S who doesn't honor distribution agreements. So, all in all, we feel like we have served Podcasters really well with the model."
Sounds like they have it covered. I'm not trying to make sation directors sound like evil people, but let's face it: those of us who have been in this space for a while have probably been stiffed before. It's good news that I, as a podcaster, can be paid directly rather than waiting for my station director to pay me.
There's another lesson here, however. Lee responded to me in private rather than commenting directly on Biz Podcasting. Lee has a concern that when CEOs and other company reps respond to blogs in comments that it can seem contrived and taken out of context.
I agree that many, many situations like this are indeed contrived, but I also feel that the purpose of the blogosphere is to have open and transparent conversations. I empathize that it can sometimes be hard to gauge the proper tone to respond with, however, and that's why I'm meeting Lee halfway and providing the meat of his rebuttal to me here.
Now we all know.
Thanks for clarifying, Lee.
I'm still not sure this is a good thing. How does Podango prevent people from adding podcasts to stations where the podcaster hasn't agreed to take part in the station?
From all I've read it sounds like these SDs can just aggregate whatever feeds they want and then start soliciting advertising.
It also sounds like Podango won't take action against SDs who fail to pass on revenue when they state, "...any podcaster who wishes to can start their own station, and compete with a S who doesn't honor distribution agreements."
Shouldn't Podango assess penalties against SDs who fail to honor their agreements?
Posted by: Rob Safuto | September 15, 2006 3:49 PM | Permalink to Comment