Taking the business out of online video

Rocketboom founder Andrew Michael Baron has posted another proclamation regarding his new Abbey Corps studio network project, which we mentioned last week. Baron says he thinks the networks like PodShow and PodTech are too focused on the business side of things, at the expense of creative support for their talent.

So whats wrong with these new networks? Nothing is wrong with them! They seem to be working. I’m very thankful they exist because my friends have jobs doing what they love to do and the audiences are happy. It’s just that these networks appear to be more focused on ad sales than generating content.

Baron has a point; in this nascent day and age of online video, creators must be entrepreneurial as well as talented. They’ve got to work double-time being creative as well as earning enough to keep the creativity alive. That works for some personalities — see our recent interview with Kent Nichols of Ask a Ninja — but you have to admit division of labor has historically proven to be effective.

The hard part, as always, will be actually making good video. We’re looking forward to seeing that work, instead of just talking about it.