New media is moving fast. Just six weeks after I first posted about how social media is becoming paid and professionalized, The New York Times reports that the United Talent Agency is recruiting online video stars. After the recording industry killed Napster, I’m really happy to see that businesses seem to be much more accepting (or desperate) of media-sharing this time around.
Still, I wonder how successful agencies are going to be in picking the next stars. Millions of Internet users are doing that already – watching, judging and rating videos all the time. How much time, money and skill would they need to compete with that? And even if they did find a potential star, would anyone listen to them?