Jody Gnant stops broadcasting when she steps into the shower or goes places that ban cameras. Other than that, her life is an open video feed.
Two months ago, the little-known singer and songwriter from Phoenix wanted to promote her sound, which she calls a cross between Janis Joplin and Jan Brady. So Gnant, 29, turned on her webcam and became a so-called lifecaster, streaming live video of her every move 24/7.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, October 05, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
"Lifecasting": An article in Section A on Wednesday about the Internet trend of live, unfiltered programs known as lifecasting included Veodia among the companies that offer free streaming video services in hopes of generating money from advertising and product placement. Veodia offers a basic service for free but makes money from fees for premium services, not from ads and product placement.
Her biceps are now so strong from carrying her webcam-equipped laptop that she bowls with a ball that's 2 pounds heavier. Her self-made reality show has drawn so much attention to her music career that she has sold nearly 1,000 CDs and her music video is being featured on MySpace and in movie theaters.
"I no longer feel alone," she said. "I feel like I have people rooting for me every step of the way."
Call it Reality TV 2.0, the next step in the Internet's evolution as an entertainment medium.
Gnant and a growing number of people are turning cameras on themselves and on their worlds, broadcasting the results in real time.
Lifecasting comes naturally to today's youths, who are used to living their lives in public, posting details of every hookup and breakup on their Facebook or MySpace pages. Anyone with a laptop, webcam and Internet connection can do it.
As with any new medium, people are trying to figure out the rules of etiquette. The budding phenomenon raises questions about the privacy of people who may not want to appear in the live streams, as well as copyright implications of, for example, broadcasting music that's playing in the background.
But companies such as Los Angeles-based Ustream, which powers Gnant's webcast, and Justin.tv in San Francisco are racing to become the dominant purveyor of such live, unfiltered programs. In the last year, the technology behind live streaming has become so cheap that start-ups such as Mogulus, MyStreams and Veodia can afford to give it away in hopes that they can make money through the mainstays of TV's reality shows: advertising and product placement.
"It's pretty obvious to everyone that TV is migrating to the Web," said Paul Graham, a founding partner of Y Combinator, an investment fund backing Justin.tv. "This medium will create a bunch of new stars."
Justin.tv gained notoriety this year when co-founder and namesake Justin Kan, a 24-year-old Yale graduate, strapped a camera to his head and started streaming every moment of his life over the Internet.
