VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

markt · Been Here Awhile Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 217

Hey all,

I'm sure this topic has been done-to-death out here, but I can't find it...

I'm considering Voices.com and wanted to get some thoughts from any who may use it.

Thanks,
Mark

SilverSurfer3001 · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:39 pm Post subject:

Some people hate it, some people like it. Don't know of any who love it.

Obscene amounts of people competing like a pack of dogs that haven't seen food in a week over jobs that are generally low paying and terribly written. The job will often show a budget of 100-250 - which is insulting enough - but for the most part some bottom feeder with a computer mic set up in the corner of the kitchen will come in and hit the client up at waaay less than 100.

If you're just getting started it's a good place to see how to work with sub-par scripts and it''ll teach you how to respond quickly - generally any job with a budget greater than 250 will have 100 people submitting auditions within 15 minutes - most of the time the auditions sound like they are quick turned kitchen corner jobs.

That being said I've talked to a few who have made a pretty decent amount of money with them. But I've spoken to more people who have broken even. Me? I've never managed to land a single gig there and no longer bother.

Lots of folks may advise you to try it out and at least you can have practice. Personally, I would recommend spending the 250 on voice acting lessons (later), and practice by reading magazine ads aloud into a microphone until you get to the point that you can pick up any copy, do a quick pre-read then read it so that it sounds just like you are carrying on a natural conversation.

FTR - That's also my opinion on V123.
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Bish · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:16 pm Post subject:

Jody makes some good observations, and I would be hard-pressed to take exception with any of them. However, in my case, it has worked a little better than that. It may well be true that a lot of the responses are from low-balling "kitchen-corner" outfits. Well, if that's what the client wants, then you (or me) with our higher quality reads and reasonable quotes weren't in with much of a chance anyway! As a side note, I found that V123 was even worse... voices.com has a minimum bid of $100... V123 not so... bid away a $5 a pop if you like. I also do not like V123's selective invitation practice... the downside is that with Voices, you can get a lot of responses. If you do a good audition, and you are what the client wants... you'll get the gig. A little simplistic, but true all the same.

I became a full-time Voices.com premium member at the beginning of the year, and have so far netted a four-figure income from it... add to that, a larger figure from repeat business from contacts made via Voices jobs, and I'd say (for this stage of my career) Voices has been a good choice for me. Part of the trick is to be selective about the auditions you respond to. Try and read between the lines of the job details and check the potential client's web site etc. If you shotgun everything, you'll just run into audition fatigue. My conversion rate jumped once I started to be more selective.

On the other hand... these are real-world scripts (OK, some are total shite) and by far the best material to practice with. I agree with Jody that acting lessons are a good investment, but for those of us who are trying to get a foothold in the market, this may be the first open door to paying gigs and exposure to a client-base... and in my case, by the end of Q2, the investment has been returned over ten-fold.

Cheers
peter
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Darren Altman · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:37 pm Post subject:

I gave voices.com a swerve a long time ago. The vast majority of jobs on there are for $100-250 and reeks of companies wanting a voice for no money. Also, when you click on the job, you find that you're one of literally hundreds that audition. I can't be arsed with that at all!

voice123 has been very good to me and I've landed several national tv and radio campaigns here in the UK through it. As I type this, I'm crossing my fingers on a BIG job from them.

If I were you, I'd stay clear of voices.com as it seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator. IE - I have a microphone, therefor I'm a voiceover artist!
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Bish · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 5:57 pm Post subject:

So there you go... a perfect example of one working for me, and another working for Darren. There is no definitive answer until you're in a position to say no to any P2P site Smile

By the way Darren... how does Bodalgo work for a Brit voice... the jobs seem to be very thin on the ground.

Cheers
peter
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Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
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Lee Gordon · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:42 am Post subject:

My experience has been a little more like Peter's. I've had a reasonable amount of success with them, particularly when you take repeat business into consideration. But it can be frustrating to discover that 50 people have already submitted demos before you get to one.

On the other hand, what's even more frustrating is when you're among the first ten responders and don't even get your demo listened to. That has happened to me a couple of times this week. For example, on Tuesday a guy posted a decent paying job for a politically oriented spot. I have gotten two previous jobs from this guy on Voices.com so I know how he operates: as soon as he gets a read he likes, he hires that person. My demo was the 8th one turned in out of 150. He never even listened to it, presumably because he hired one of the first seven.

On the other hand, while most of my fellow American voiceoverists were celebrating the 4th of July with family & friends, I was home enjoying the ballgame on TV and popped into the next room to check my e-mail whenever it called to me. There wasn't much activity on Voices.com that day but there were a few auditions, one of which called for a "Young Adult" but I went for it anyway, was the first one to reply, and got hired the next day. A couple of days later, the same client e-mailed me directly to do two more spots. Interestingly, today he posted another job on Voices.com for the same product but this time the instructions specified "must pass for 20-something" so I figured there was no point in going after it and deleted it.
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SilverSurfer3001 · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:19 am Post subject:

I've heard that the way Voices screens the auditions is is in LIFO order, so the first audition is never heard. If that's the case it then becomes a guessing game as to when the client will be popping in to hear the auditions.
Too much of a crap shoot for me to spend any energy worrying about it.
V123? I've heard that they are FIFO, it pays to be first. But I can't tell you how many "considerations" I've gotten from the client only to never hear from then again. On the other hand it IS a good tool for toughening up the ego and teaching one to submit it and forget it.
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Deirdre · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:40 am Post subject:

Que est-ce que c'est FIFO and LIFO?
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bransom · DC Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 650 Location: St. Louis, MO

My experience has been that Voices pays for itself but doesn't generate anything near a livable amount of money. I find I seldom audition there as it seems pointless to add my read to the batch of 80+ auditions that are already in by the time I get the email. Peter and Lee, do you guys submit when there are already a high number of auditions in? Just curious.

Where I've actually made money from the site has been private invitations, where the buyer goes searching through demos then selectively asks a handful of people to submit. That's generated a few thousand dollars.

Jennifer Vaughn, who apparently is a quite successful VO artist, did a Voice Over Xtra article a while back analyzing "auditions submitted vs. dollars received" for Voices and V123. It was an interesting read and probably worth your time before you spend the $300 or whatever a premium subsciption costs. http://voiceoverextra.com/article.htm?id=294a0cby
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todd ellis · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:52 am Post subject:

sure, Fifo & Lifo Williams ... i went to high school with them. Lifo was the tall one.
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Lizden · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:52 am Post subject:

Lee Gordon · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:52 am Post subject:

Bish · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:28 pm Post subject:

Bob, with regard to the high number of participants and whether or not to audition. I should have made it clear that I reply to only two types of audition. The first is where a "British" voice is requested... the pool of jobs is much smaller (some weeks almost none), but the pool of hopeful voices is also much smaller. For the most generic "British" jobs, the pool rarely seems to get above thirty or so. The second group of jobs is where there is no specification regarding the accent. This is where some diligence is required. Most of these jobs are looking for a "North American" accent, but the seeker has failed to specify the fact (after all, everyone is American... aren't they?). These pools can get up into three figures very quickly... and even when able to get in early, could be a complete waste of time because Voices does not force a seeker to specify a region. These are the hardest ones to evaluate... but I'm sure that I've had my successes there because I've caught them by surprise and made them re-think their original spec (well, that's what I was told once).

As for the LIFO/FIFO thing... I'm sure that Voices presents the auditions to the customer as they arrive... therefore FIFO. In fact, I can't actually get my head round the mechanics of doing it the other way around over a three or four day audition period.

Cheers
peter
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Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
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markt · Been Here Awhile Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 217

Wow! A lot of differing opinions...I appreciate all of everyones feedback! Spacial thanks to Bob for the link to Jennifer Vaughn's article. That was some info-packed stuff!

Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:26 pm Post subject:

I've got free trials with both services and I'm leaning toward preferring Voice123, simply because they have less gigs to audition for.

Whatchootalkinbout Willis?

Today, Voices.com had 30-40 gigs. I ended up deleting most of them because I don't want the crappy $100 jobs and the higher paying ones already had 85+ people who submitted auditions.

The voice123 casting system limits the gigs it sends to you based on how many auditions you've already sent in, so you don't have 85 people sending in auditions in the first 5 minutes. People have to pick and choose the jobs they really want as opposed to using the shotgun approach of auditioning for everything and hoping it sticks.

The complainers will complain that "But I paid for my membership, I should be able to audition for any jobs I want!!". And there's truth to that. But remember, if you are given the freedom, then so is everyone else. And the chances of you booking any gigs drops drastically.

Look at it this way. Wouldn't your agent be far more effective if he picked gigs that were right for a handful of people as opposed to sending them to their entire roster?
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