VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[jordanreynolds]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I've been comparing both services lately.

V123 was very kind and gave me a 60 day trial. I landed 1 gig out of about 30+ auditions. With quite a few even marked as "Finalist" to never hear back.

Since voices.com offers no trial I bought their expensive 1 month package to try it out for $40. It's only been 2-3 weeks and I have to admit that I'm not really happy with their service. I currently have a full time job and the only time I can audition is at night. I get emails all day long with new job postings. I mark the ones I want to audition for when I get home to discover most already have 80-250 auditions already submitted! Holy #*%!. Also, I have managed to find some jobs where I am the 35th, 50th, 70thish audition and it never gets listened to. I've submitted 23 jobs and only 9 were ever listened to. I am also very selective too, especially looking out for how many auditions have already submitted. Overall I'm just very frustrated. Especially because I know I'm submitting quality demos. To be frank, I've listened to many demos from VO's on voices.com (who have voice seeker feedback) and they are terrible. Mediocre voice acting, horrible audio quality, way too long, etc. I'm just very frustrated with my experience so far. I probably won't purchase a 1 year subscription after this. It's like trying to be listened to amongst a pack of rabid wolves.

Yes, people complain about not being able to audition for EVERYTHING that comes through. Well, look what happens. If you're not a fulltime voice actor, just waiting by your microphone for auditions to pop in at any second, then you're odds of your audition even being listened to is slim-to-none. Most of the V123 auditions would only have 15-40 auditions already submitted when I got home. In my 60 day trial I submitted 36 auditions and 31 were listened to. That's 87% compared to voices.com mere 40% listen rate. As for P2P sites, I think V123 is the way to go (for me).

Sorry for my rant. I was just surprised at the stark difference between my experiences with both services. The preference between voices.com and v123 seems to be kind of split down the middle in this thread. Count me in, so far, for V123 - by a mile.

[Yonie]

It's a good thing that people can't audition for everything because they could never be honest with themselves. Some middle-aged men think that just because they can raise the pitch of their voice, they can do a young adult male. And so, lots and lots of people audition for stuff they would never be right for, in the hopes that somebody discovers their greatness.

Voice123 has some semblance of regulation, but that system is pretty broken as well. I hear the customer service is far better on the Voices.com side too.

[bransom]

I subscribe to both and am just beginning to accurately track how many auditions I do vs. how much work I get. I don't audition much with either of them — I only audition when I've got free time and the job actually might fit me — but, oddly, this year Voices has been much better for me than 123. This surprised me.

On 123, I've auditioned roughly 65 times so far this year. These yielded two jobs totaling a few hundred dollars. More than enough to cover my membership fee but if I do the math ((income - membership) / time to do the auditions), my hourly rate ain't too hot.

On Voices, I've auditioned only 32 times, won five of those which were worth a few thousand dollars. A much better investment both in income and in time invested.

This may be a fluke as I would expect 123 to have yielded better results since I'm not competing against as many people but that hasn't been the case. I should also note that two of the Voices jobs were private auditions, where the buyer searched their database and invited a short list of people to audition. Also, I only audition for Voices jobs where I can be one of the first 25 or so in. Though there are anecdotal stories of "I was audition number 123 and got picked for the bazillion $$ national campaign!", I figure those are truly flukes.

For 2012, I'm renewing both but plan to better track jobs vs. auditions vs. time expended to see if keeping both makes sense.

And, as always, your mileage may vary. And if I had to live on what I make from both services combined, I'd be in a refrigerator box down by the river.
_________________
Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

[Michael Schoen]

A number of quality enduring clients have found me on Voices and Voice123.
I opt out of the low budget jobs on either site -- so I pay no attention to them. The quality of leads varies greatly -- but you can do the ones you like.
So what's the beef?
As they say in the cereal commercials -- just part of a healthy breakfast.
Agents, casting directors, returning clients, referrals personal and internet marketing and P2P.
The subscriptions are affordable and as for the time sucking nature of the sites, it's up to you how you budget your time. Just because the audition is available doesn't mean it's right for you. So audition for the ones that are.
--MS
_________________
http://MichaelSchoen.com

[Deirdre]

[Philip Banks]

Bear in mind that voices.com in an anagram of Satan; just sayin'.

[Todd Ethridge]

_________________
http://toddvoice.com/

[Rognog]

This is my new mantra for P2P sites:

Screen Effectively
Audition Professionally
Bid Ethically

If you do those things, the work will come! If you can't or won't, then maybe it's not the P2P sites that's the problem...
_________________
Tom Dheere - The "H" is Silent, but I'm Not!
www.tomdheere.com

[Rick Riley]

I like the, 'just part of a healthy breakfast' analogy. I'm continually surprised at the quality of clients that choose to cast through Voices. Granted, there's a lot of junk in there, but even some of the junk can be kind of cool, like young film makers looking to make a quality project on a limited budget. I've done a few of those and the appreciation for my input has more than made up for the lack of dollars.

I know that I still have relationships today with those that took time to help me when I was trying to figure out 'how to' in a very creative and competitive business. There was nothing in it for those that helped me except my gratitude and that seemed to be all they needed. If you're one of those kind of people, you understand. I really love the creativity of the business, and sometimes I'll work on things just for the sake of working, regardless of the money. And there's some worthwhile projects and people in there that allow me to be helpful and have fun at the same time. I don't do it all the time, but I do it enough.

But one has to make a living as well and I've found both services, V123 and Voices.com, to be instrumental in making that happen. Clients I've found through Voices? General Motors, AT&T, Motorola, Cabela's, the Fairmont Hotel Chain Worldwide, Mediacom, Mother's Car Care, The Minnesota Vikings and quite a few others. Ongoing, continuing projects that have been extremely fruitful.V123 has been less productive but well worth my time. In fact, here's a Rascal Flatts spot I just booked through them, which I thought was kind of cool. http://vimeo.com/31965355

Bottom line, more and more big names are finding their way to these sites. I don't walk off a car lot because there might be some clunkers mixed in and that's the way I look at the casting portals. But those are just my views. The competition is stiff enough. Don't let me encourage any of you to make it even more so. Since the question was asked, I wanted to offer my experience as well.

[heyguido]

Well said....
_________________
Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[tombrom]

btw....what is up with Voices.com's leads? There seems to be virtually no auditions or jobs. I used to get 10 leads a day, granted 99% of them were not worth submitting, but the omens for them can't be good. Anyone else noticed or just me?
_________________
Thomas Bromhead
www.tombrom.com
tombrom@gmail.com

[tombrom]

what the?? As soon as I posted this auditions seem to have restarted after nothing for at least 6 or so weeks...the internet moves in mysterious ways....where is my lotto ticket?
_________________
Thomas Bromhead
www.tombrom.com
tombrom@gmail.com

[Scott Pollak]

I'm about out of patience with the P2P sites, even though for a couple of years I've been singing the praises of V123. And I've gotten a ton of work from there and some of it quite well-paying. Many, many repeat clients from there.

But lately the system seems broken. I consistently rate quite high there, but can easily go 2 weeks without receiving a single lead, which is insane. I've complained to Steven Lowell there, and he'll go in and mess with my profile or something, and the next day I'll have 15 leads in my inbox.

Then nothing again for weeks on end. I told them I'm not paying $300 a year to get NO leads.

I may try voices.com again, but I never fared as well there. Hated the unlimited number of auditions. It's a conundrum I tell you. Don't want to leave the P2P sites altogether because of the POTENTIAL they offer, but they sure don't seem to be working as well as they used to.
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[Philip Banks]

First, you have to think differently.

The potential is ALL yours, Scott. That potential screams out in everything you do. Whilst there may indeed be bits n bobs to be found as a result of being part of the P2P mob, greater things await you in other places.