VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[DonHammock]

I am about to sign up with Interactive Voices. Any input about them?
Thanks ,

Don

P.S. DAVE, that soundslike the SAME agent I had when I lived in Houston.
Does the agency by chance have anything to do with a Mad Hatter??

[Philip Banks]

If this helps. I can't think of one reason to sign up particularly if you propose spending money. Only spend money promoting YOU and YOU alone.

Having said that, if you are able to mentally write the money off and do not intend wasting too much time auditioning it may be worth a gamble.

[Dave]

[Don Hammock]

FYI: The stingy stamp agent I'm referring to is the NFL quarterback connection.[/quote]


Dave,

Good hearing from you too. I was gone for almost a year to MO, then KY.
But I'm back now.
I know EXACTLY who you are talking about and I am REALLY surprized. They used to be the biggest agency in town, and for them to operate like that really surprizes me.

Keep in touch and I'll talk to you later,

Don

[Spacegypsy]

Seems to me most of Interactive Voices leads are for On Hold with a budget of $75 .... I do so well out of Voice123 that I decided to also give Interactive Voices a whirl - and so far I got nada after 4 months.

[Andy]

Been with IV for about 6 months and I've gotten 6 paying jobs. The better ones were clients who found me on the roster. Two others wound up being on my non-pay list. IV did very little to assist me there. Gotta agree with the Gypsy, there's quite a bit of low budget phone work. They don't generate a plethora of leads, either.

Plus, the membership is getting packed. A client I picked up last week mentioned in passing, that he was swamped with more than 200 auditions.

[lisaloo]

Interactive Voices did nothing for me, and despite courting me quite aggressively and promising me that at least 1/3 of their work was union, I never saw a single union audition in the entire year. I was able to submit for exactly nothing.

I recently dropped my membership, but I think they still list me on the site.

Lisa

[Bob Taylor]

I deceided to take the plunge but so far I'm disappointed.
I have auditioned for at least 40 jobs and have purposely put myself in the "whore business" quote-wise just to try to get my tuition back, but not one callback. Look, I'm not the best in the industry but I'm damn good and have a track record to prove it. I'd'a thought I could have pulled off a couple of $50 gigs at least but no. I think its a LOT less than its cracked up to be.

Bob Taylor Voice Productions
www.cedgeonline.com/voiceover/samples

[Deirdre]

IV was quite aggressive with me as well, but I merely agreed to let them have a reciprocal link with me.

V123 paid for itself, but I'm not interested in re-upping.
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DBCooperVO.com

[kgenus]

The only way I would be happy with an online service would be if:

A. Minimum payment standards were set.
B. Jobs were based on profile agreements.
C. The service brokered audio/payment delivery.
D. A percentage of the fee was paid to the service (no memberships).

Done properly it would be a complete service based site, not a profit generating tool which is the main difference. The only way I would ever see this would be if I developed it myself.

Essentially, on a $100 (ease of math) job a fee of $110 would be collected. 7% or $7 of that fee would go towards site and site maintenance fees. $100 or %90 would be paid to the talent electronically. An additional $3 or 3% would also be issued in the talent payment to cover electronic payment methods (i.e. PayPal or whatever electronic payment system that was being used).

The extra funds would go to specific containers:

Storage. Each individual account would be allowed 5 demos, standardized format at one (1) meg or less - Commercial / Narration / Imaging / TV Promo / Phone.

Bandwidth.

I pay a set monthly for my website and monthly bandwidth. If a site like this generated $50/month from 7% collections, it would pay for itself. any extras could really be given back to the community in the form of a montly random drawing lottery, your chances based on the number of transactions you had that month. Assuming the fee to use any talent's service would be $250, after 100 transactions, someone would walk away with a new mic, preamp or voucher for free VO work (whose costs would be covered by the service).

I think this type of model would work. The current models are based on generating income, which is fine, but it would help if they hired some analysts to find out WHAT people wanted first.

IV and V123 interfaces are not user friendly at all and being part of a no-pay situation has to be pretty rough. To buy this person's service, please click here to pay -- one more thing -- auditions would be blind until the payment had been approved.

Obviously this system wouldn't work for everyone....
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Genus

[billelder]

Kevin,

Have you given this some thought?

What a great, detailed vision of a working service.

[mcm]

I'm sold. When do we start, Kevin???

[Deirdre]

K Genus Voices, Inc.
High Class Family of voices. Sound made to Order.
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DBCooperVO.com

[Dave]