Got Mevio?
Not that there is anything wrong with changing your company name, I quite happily work for a company that has changed its name three times in the last six years. I am not complaining. But it is what that name-change represents that makes it a good thing… or not. You may know that PodShow, the company owned by Adam Curry and a fellow by the name of Ron Bloom, officially changed its name to Mevio, a name that seems to be created by the same random password generator that forces us to remember things like @fE37>b, but what does this name shift give us?
As far as I am concerned, BIG, FAT LIES! I have always been skeptical of the activities of Curry and cohorts. I am naturally paranoid, so that is just me, but I was absolutely floored when I read what Ron Bloom had to say in one of the company’s own press releases. Here, Mister Bloom is quoted as saying “We have never believed in user-generated content as a business, or even as a sustainable entertainment offering.”
Excuse me? This is coming from the CEO of a company that up until 2 days ago was ALL about user generated content. What about giving us the means to “quit your day job”? Setting up a music network so us amateurs didn’t have to pay ridiculous fees to play music in our podcasts? That’s all just down the drain now? Because we have “never believed in user-generated content”?
Mister bloom is sadly at odds with… wait for the drum roll… Himself! On his own web site (www.ronbloom.com) he is proudly claiming to be the author of the media’s 5/50 rule. As he puts it, “Within 5 years over 50% of all media consumed will be created by other consumers.”
Yeah, Yeah, I know. The former and latter statement are not mutually exclusive. Nonetheless you can’t help feeling like you just got kicked in the nuts. I have never believed that creating a podcast from your basement or back room can get you famous or even financially independent. And even that is strictly personal. I know others have done it. But they have been feeding the quit your day job line to 1000’s of people for several years. And now they are quitting what many perceived to be their day job. Feel left out in the cold? You should! I will quite happily turn over and go back to sleep. I never bought into their bullshit anyway, but maybe someone should ask the 25% of their work-force they just canned what they think about the name change.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Interesting detail… PodShow has a “new” name? Yes, there is a reason I surrounded the word new with quotes. New is a relative term. So relative in fact, that if you go to www.dnsstuff.com and do a whois lookup on the domain name, you will find that it was registered in 2003! If my data is correct, that’s 2 years BEFORE PodShow even existed.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Just to add in that one of the things I was told when I was offered a podshow contract was, “don’t expect to quit your day job.” Glad I didn’t because I haven’t seen a penny yet.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
The registrant of Mevio.com, Mutahar Glasgow I believe is the wife of the Senior Vice President of Mevio in the UK, Moody Glasgow.