VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[daveynate]

When the client pays a 20% fee for the agent, is it also common for the agent to take an additional 20% commission? For example:
-The rate is $1000 + 20%, giving the agent $200;
-The agent takes an additional $200 off that as commission.

Is this common practice?
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"If the shit fits, wear it."
Donald 'Duck' Dunn

http://davidgoldsteinvo.com

[Bruce]

My agent years ago in Phoenix would charge or accept a 20% bump in rate and then deduct 20% from that figure as commission, so for a $1,000 job she was paid $1,200 and minus her $240 fee I received $960. "Foul!" I cried. "Too bad!" she cried.

"Oh well" I sighed.

Union jobs are different. 10% paid on top, period.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Bob Bergen]

There have been so many times actors have said yes to lousy deals, which eventually become standard practice. I remember a few decades ago when I started hearing about non-union agents not just charging 20% but charging 20% from both the actor and the buyer. I was pretty successful swaying actors to say no to this when I first started teaching out of town weekend workshops. I would say a good 2-4 dozen actors were able to negotiate plus 10% from their regional agents. (I coached them on how to negotiate)

But, I only did 1-2 of these workshops a year. Eventually too many kept saying yes to this horrible deal. It's like whoever decided audiobooks should be paid for the finished hour, not the time it took to record/edit. But, more often than not ya cannot fight those who say yes.

[George]

(porky) Piggy backing on Bob's point: the volume of people who will say yes has grown exponentially year over year the last few years. This doesn't help anything.

[Bob Bergen]

[Lee Gordon]

I'm not sure there was ever a time when the work was primarily union, other than in the major markets. When I started doing VO around 50 years ago, almost all the work was local. And most of that was non-union. From my home base, there may have been occasional opportunities to drive to Boston or take a train to NY for a decent, possibly union, gig. In other parts of the country that were near, but not in, big markets, I imagine it was the same. But for the majority of the work and the auditions, we had to go, in person, to the local studio to record. And here's the thing; you didn't need an agent for any of that.

So, the advent of the internet has brought with it a couple of other phenomena that Bob didn't mention. First, just as there has been a flood of voiceover "talent" entering the market, there has also been a proliferation of agents joining the party. You no longer had to be in NY, LA, and the other major markets to do the work, and you also didn't have to be in one of those places to get, or even be, an agent. Before this development, agents didn't touch non-union work. After the arrival of the internet, that's all some agents deal in.

I think the internet has also oversold the importance of even having an agent. If you're going to be doing non-union jobs, I'd bet that many, if not most, of those jobs people overpay agents for could be be gotten without the aid of a middleman.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[todd ellis]

+1 to Lee. When I started doing this in 1989 I cobbled together a very (to me) expensive home studio - microphone, reel to reel(s) - eventually a 4 track, cassette decks, big ass board TAPE, TAPE, TAPE --- it was a barrier to entry that does not exist today. Now, anybody can pop on to Amazon and have everything they need to start a VO business for $1,000 and delivered by this time thursday. Of course, that doesn't guarantee success - but, it's a barrier gone.

I didn't have an agent until almost ten years later - in the meantime I knocked on a lot of local doors and called a bunch of local TV & radio stations and local/regional cable companies, and whenever I was put on hold at a business and heard the radio, or worse nothing - I asked to talk to "the guy" to sell them a Message On-Hold. In short - marketing. I get the vast majority of my business today in the same way. A bit from agents, but, mostly, from my own beating of bushes.

That said, Bob does a totally different thing - a completely different world from most of us.

Bob, a lot of us have heard your story and it's a great one! However, "P&H" is something most of us never even think about - session fees leave sacks of cash at the end of the driveway.

I was already established pre-internet. If I were 23 years old today, voiceover is not the path I would choose. The space IS too crowded. I would join the electrical union ... or learn to weld better.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Bob Bergen]

[todd ellis]

Let me clarify --- when I said:

[Bob Bergen]