VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Boothvoice · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 10:46 am Post subject: Not so quick on the draw

I just signed up for Voices.com this week and I've auditioned for about 10 jobs . In most of the cases, I was sitting in front of the computer screen when the job appeared in my mailbox. It took maybe a nanosecond to open the e-mail and there were already 20 to 30 auditions in front of me.

I may not be speedy, but in the few minutes (maybe three minutes tops) it took to record a brief demo from their scripts..load a template response and "hit the button" that I was often 80 to 100 on the list.

Needless to say I didn't get one of the jobs, in fact, none of the auditions was even opened.

So how do you guys do it?
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Tom Booth
"Everything You Need in the Booth"
www.boothvoice.com

Scott Pollak · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 11:08 am Post subject:

I don't. I refuse to participate in voices.com anymore because of that. Let my subscription there lapse some years ago.

Some people hate V123's Smartcast because it LIMITS how much you can audition. I love it for that very reason.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

bobsouer · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 11:57 am Post subject:

Tom,

I made the decision to pull the plug on my Voices.com subscription a few years ago, cancelling my membership half-way through that year. I have nothing against them. They're good people.

But, I'm working on building relationships with people who want to work with me more than once. Standing in a crowd shouting "pick me, pick me" isn't a very good way to do that.
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Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

imaginator · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:32 pm Post subject:

...wish i had a good answer, tom. that very scenario was what made me choose not to renew.
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rowell gormon
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Bish · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:35 pm Post subject:

Hi Tom,

Don't read too much into how many people got in front of you if you were getting your custom demo out quickly. I certainly understand that for a North American male, it can be a bear-pit (and Scott's comments are very true) but according to a lot of information I've seen from voice seekers, even if a custom demo is required, there will be quite a few "talents" who send in their generic demo that's already on the system.

Personally, I don't suffer too much from this problem because there is a much smaller pool of jobs for Brit voices (and also far fewer jobs!). I may re-visit V123, but I found their Smartcast process frustrating... but Scott's point about limits is valid, as it makes you (correctly) very selective.

Cheers
Peter
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

Rick Riley · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 1:21 pm Post subject:

Counter Point: You know Tom, that I'm a big supporter of yours, but I think you may be exaggerating the numbers on the negative side to bolster your reasons for 'why bother'.

I am with Voices.com. I find them to be quite valuable. Since your post I did a few things. I went back to look at my billing. Six out of the last 10 of my invoices went to clients who found me through Voices.com. And all six of them have been substantial, repetitive clients. Major league clients. Most of them you would recognize.

Through Voices.com I landed a gig with the Minnesota Vikings. The production company that does their TV spots, threw out an audition through Voices.com. They contacted me, we did the spot, we did another spot, the Vikings liked the spot, liked my voice, asked if I would do their radio, internet and stadium promos for their season. That was very exciting for me.

So since I saw your post, I grabbed the next Voices.com audition that came through. A TV-30. Now keep in mind I was working on another project, so it took me a minute to make up my mind whether I wanted to break away for this little test... but for you Tom, I opened the email, went to the site and there were already six auditions.

I printed out the script, went in my booth, read the copy ( did a good read because I'd like to get the gig ) bounced it to MP3, hit my 'Greeting Template', submitted and checked what number I was. Number 21! [I was number 22 on the Vikings audition]

I didn't run, I'm not 'Mr. Quick' and I gave it my best shot. As I finish this post, there are still only 32 responses.

Whoever wants to avoid Voices.com, for whatever reasons, I certainly understand. However, I've met some very nice clients through the site that have given me a lot work and remain a substantial part of my business, for which I am very thankful.

With that in mind, I thought I'd go to bat for the other side.

Yonie · CM Joined: 31 Aug 2011 Posts: 906

(First post, hooray!)

One thing somebody told me about Voices.com and Voice123 is that Voices.com is abused by people who submit on virtually everything. They overestimate themselves and think they can do all aspects of any type of spot. With Voices.com, they potentially can, through simply submitting on everything. The good thing is that you see every project available, the bad thing is that the project creators are swamped with people who have no business in that particular project. Voice123 is probably better in that case, providing some sorting of talent.

I'm not writing this out of a talent's viewpoint, just a general statement.

Jan Anderson · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 3:06 pm Post subject:

Yeah....it can be frustrating. I try to be selective in my auditioning process and I generally won't audition for any job that has already recieved 35 ahead of me. Good luck!!

Boothvoice · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:07 am Post subject:

Thanks for the input guys.....Bob...I agree that building relationships is the key to success, I'm much more comfortable behind the mic than I am on the street, but I know I need to pull myself out of "my darkened studio" to identify and pursue potential clients . On the other hand, I would think it's also possible to develop relationships with online clients at voices.com as well.

and Rick, I didn't inflate the numbers, but I have gotten better at responding. The last two auditions had me at number 6 and number 15. It's still too early to tell if I'll have any success there, but I'll keep plugging away. I'm not counting on making my living with work from Voices.com, or any pay-to-play site, but it would be nice to pick up a few jobs along the way.
_________________
Tom Booth
"Everything You Need in the Booth"
www.boothvoice.com

Bruce · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:12 am Post subject:

The early worm has a higher chance of being selected for ingestion quickly by a not very picky, ravenous bird, but all worms will get a fair pre-meal review when the bird is an intelligent connoisseur.

I think these services send clients updated links to auditions every hour, so if you get in in the first hour I guess your chances are better, but beyond that....

B
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bransom · DC Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 650 Location: St. Louis, MO

I've seen the same problem on Voices: blink your eye and there are 50 auditions in on any given project, especially one that pays more than the standard "$100-$250".

So I don't even try to keep up. I rarely audition for jobs on Voices — maybe once or twice a week at most; many weeks, none at all. But these are jobs that I think I'd be a really good fit for. Occasionally I get something out of it.

What I've actually found most useful on Voices is clients finding me: Private audition requests where i know I'm on the short-list for the job. There aren't that many of those that come in but I've made some decent money on a few of them, enough to convince me to renew my membership earlier this year.
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Bob Ransom
"I really need a pithy quote here."

Lee Gordon · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:26 pm Post subject:

I just did a little quick research that seems to support the argument that it's important to be among the first into the pool on Voices.com. Looking at my last 15 jobs from there, my demos were:

14th of 44 submitted
18th of 49
15th of 89
7th of 31
14th of 66
10th of 40
1st of 1 (a private invitation to me only)
11th of 77
2nd of 3
7th of 54
1st of 24
13th of 47
11th of 78
6th of 123
and
19th of 33

So it appears none of the jobs I've gotten in the past several months were ones that my demo was 20th or later. Somewhat surprisingly, only one of those 15 got more than 100 replies and only four got more than 75.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
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Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Jan Anderson · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:17 pm Post subject:

Interesting stats, Lee. Very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing.

Rick Riley · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:32 pm Post subject:

Lee,

Since we're doing the Voices.com research, here's my latest 15. I excluded the ones that I was invited by request as they only contained 1 to four auditions.

22nd of 130
36th of 96
21st of 51
13th of 79
34th of 72
15th of 92
25th of 146
37th of 79
10th of 87
34th of 237
20th of 119
12th of 83
28th of 83
59th of 77
40th of 131

Most of mine break the '20th or earlier' observation, but only one broke being on the top 50.

Make of it what you will. From where I sit, there is no real pattern... except a lot of numbers that end in 'th'.

Bish · Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 5:51 am Post subject:

OK, I'll add my recent figures here (these are general, and not personal invitations). I think what is interesting is that although I do seem to be getting in relatively early, the overall numbers for Brit voices are waaaay lower than for the North American (or unspecified) ones. I can go days without even getting a sniff at a Brit voice audition. On a slow week, I may not see any that I consider to be in my area of "expertise" (or financially realistic).

There are relatively few of us shooting for the same jobs on Voices... so, to my fellow Brits are out there in VO-BB land... do a guy a solid, huh? Wink

5 of 17
11 of 29
4 of 21
12 of 28
3 of 13
7 of 16
5 of 7
4 of 34
2 of 14

Cheers
Peter
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.