Susan Boyle: Show me the money

Yeoh Siew Hoon follows the Scottish lass’ second performance in “Britain’s Got Talent” and looks at the battle behind the scenes to “monetise” the new star.

So I couldn’t resist and had to watch YouTube’s singing sensation Susan Boyle do her thing during Britain’s Got Talent’s semi-finals.

It was a bit of a shaky start for the woman who became a laptop-in-every-household name after her debut six weeks ago, but her fine vocals soared at the end of the song “Memories” from the musical, Cats.

At the time I watched it, the YouTube video had about 1.4 million views. Interestingly I tried watching the video through Mashable, the social media site, and Huffington Post but instead got a “Embedding disabled by request” message which meant I had to go to the official YouTube version.

Anyway, I am sure this second video will have far fewer views than the first one (as of April, that had been viewed 220 million times, according to one article), which proves that people are essentially like wildebeest. They go like herds from one new thing to another newer thing.

However as the recent American Idol finals has proven, blog buzz and Internet hype do not votes make. Adam  Lambert, who rated higher in blog buzz, iTunes downloads and Twitter following, still lost to Kris Allen.

What does that prove? Those who buzz do not vote when it counts? They are too busy blogging, downloading and tweeting?

The post-Idol chatter about Kris Allen being a “cheater” also shows that those who blog can get vicious and nasty. After a New York Times article said that Allen may have been helped by AT&T which had demonstrated “power texting” to his fan rallies, the blogsophere came alive with with sticks and stones hurled at Allen.

All that huge traffic to the Susan Boyle video meanwhile is not benefiting the television producers who discovered her. According to an article in the IHT, the video clips on YouTube do not seem to have generated any advertising revenues for FremantleMedia Enterprises, which owns the international digital rights to the show.

“The most popular videos were not the official versions but rather copies of the TV shows posted by individual users.”

This article appeared on May 26, which would explain why on May 28, all the videos I tried to watch through third party sites had the “embedding disabled” message.

The IHT article continued, “The case reflects the inability of big media companies to make big profits from supersize Internet audiences that seem to come from nowhere.”

The success of the first video has prompted the producers and YouTube to discuss a new deal. FremantleMedia is “investigating the best routes to monetise the channel in conjunction with relevant partners”, the IHT piece quoted a spokesperson, Belinda Thomas.

YouTube spokesman, Ricardo Reyes, said, “We’re glad to be helping Britain share its talents with the rest of the world. It’s up to our partners to decide what to do with their videos on YouTube.”

Roughly translated, it means, go figure it out yourself.

I hope whatever the big boys figure out, the star of the show, Susan, who is on her way to the finals, gets a piece of the action. But I fear like all artists, she will get trampled on that big, bad superhighway to stardom.

According to an article in Wired magazine in April, Avril Lavigne, YouTube’s current reigning champion, took more than two years to accumulate its tally of 118 million views “(and required some gaming of the system by her fans to do so)”.

“Assuming Boyle continues her run without succumbing to a fan backlash, she’ll win the Britain’s Got Talent competition’s $200K first prize and possible recording contract with Cowell. Will she see a piece of this YouTube action? If her lawyer has any sense, he or she will insist that Boyle receive a share of YouTube revenue going forward.”

Somehow I don’t see that happening with Ms Boyle from Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland. Do you?