J. Michael Collins

Recent events in the voiceover industry are making transparency” a hot topic again. This term was the watchword over the great controversies that began enveloping Voices.com a few years ago. Voices’ greatest sin wasn’t dipping their hands deep into the kitty on managed jobs, (which is not to excuse the practice, but various forms of such activity have existed in the industry for years,) but rather their utter unwillingness to plainly state what they were doing, why, and how. Like in politics, it’s usually the coverup that does the most damage, and Voices’ loss of prestige and community buy-in was largely rooted in their rapid shift from a friendly, customer-oriented, responsive little company into a wannabe behemoth that only spoke in cold corporate platitudes while appearing to be hiding things from inquiring members. This should be a lesson to anyone selling services to talent, whether they are a casting site, a management company, a coach, a demo producer, or service provider.

When talent puts money on the table, we demand absolute transparency. If you are a casting site, we expect to know precisely how your system operates, down to the finest details. You don’t have to give us the coding to your algorithms, but if your site uses algorithms to determine how auditions are distributed (and for those paying attention, the reason bodalgo.com and VO Planet are so highly regarded is that they don’t go in for such things, in addition to their general attitude,) we expect you to share precisely how those algorithms are weighted, the principle behind using such algorithms, and exactly what talent should or should not do to place themselves in the most advantageous position. We expect you to be able to give a reasonable estimate of how many auditions talent at various membership levels will receive each day, and whether there are any limitations or considerations when it comes to how many can be replied to.

Suppose you are in the business of taking commissions. In that case, whether you are a casting site, talent manager, agent, or another animal, we expect to know how much you are taking, how that process works, and whether it varies from one job to the next. If the reality varies from what we have been told we expect an explanation, and where appropriate we may demand a full or partial refund if we feel like the product we received differed from what we were sold.

Coaches should be fully transparent about their schedules and their areas of expertise. If you know you can only offer one session a month, don’t set an expectation of one per week. If a talent is excited to learn character voices for video games and your area of expertise is E-Learning, pass the business on to a qualified colleague, and tell the talent why. Do your due diligence when evaluating a new coaching client and be prepared to offer a reasonable professional estimate of how much coaching they should need to be ready to compete.

Demo producers should be able to offer a clear timeline for delivery and a detailed explanation of their process. They should also, in my opinion, be willing to offer a money-back guarantee on their work if the talent isn’t satisfied with the final product.

Transparency doesn’t come with terms and conditions. Corporate speak isn’t transparent. If you take money from talent, you have an obligation to be completely open about what they are and are not getting for their money.

The number of competent professional-grade talent is far smaller than most people think. Service providers would do well to remember that when they choose how to approach and communicate with us.

I had the opportunity for an extensive chat with Voice123 leadership this morning. As you can imagine, they are busy working multiple shifts, including overnight, to stabilize the platform and reply to talent and buyer concerns. Here are a few of the highlights on updates from Voice123:

1.) The Accept/Decline feature does not impact your ranking, regardless of your membership level. The ability to delete jobs without “declining” each one is something they are working on. They reiterated that accepting jobs that are a poor fit could lead to less favorable feedback from buyers, which may impact future invitation numbers for Premium members.

2.) Regarding usage details within a project, they indicated that Voice123 did testing on client behavior that indicated clients were more likely to post detailed information about usage in the project description field if they weren’t given tons of checkboxes and drop-down options when posting the jobs. They monitor this and include language in the project description field, encouraging clients to be as detailed as possible about usage.

3.) It was acknowledged that the purpose of the “negotiable” toggle might be confusing. It has been suggested that this could lead to more bidding wars and a race-to-the-bottom mentality. They indicated that the purpose was that, by leaving it off, talent would have the ability to present their bid as non-negotiable to the buyer (that is the language the buyer sees.) They indicated that they will be adding a TBD box as another option.

4.) Right-clicking will be coming back at some point once higher-priority items are resolved.

5.) They are working to improve filtering and managing the inbox.

6.) The ability to search by project ID is being looked into.

7.) Platform loading times/glitches/errors are a top priority and are being worked on around the clock.

8.) Budgets will be added to email notifications.

9.) Some jobs currently accept more submissions than requested (25/10, etc.) They are working on this bug, but they assured me that for the time being, clients will see ALL of these submissions, even if it is more than requested.

10.) The watermark is being reviewed.

11.) The project description and client notes will be moving to the top of the page.

12.) Auto-fill and templates for submissions are under consideration.

I was assured that Voice123 is listening and paying attention to the various threads on social media. Team members are working overnight to get things right. Our conversation was frank and candid, and I’m grateful they were willing to share all of this on the record. I’m looking forward to continuing to liaise with Voice123 leaders and the Voice123 team, and at this time remain very confident that they will have the platform functioning nicely over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more updates!

A few weeks ago, Red Dead Redemption 2 was released to the world, featuring the voices of roughly half of our friends and colleagues, (and much congratulations to them for their amazing work.) This Old West-themed video game takes place across a stunning landscape where law and order is more theory than fact, and where those who don’t keep their wits about them often find themselves in a pine box. The VO industry is a bit less cutthroat, thank goodness. We tend to support each other rather than fire our Smith and Wessons into our competitor’s backs, and identifying the guys with the black hats isn’t all that tough. The evolution of voiceover, however, bears a lot of resemblance to a world with few maps, fewer rules, and a lot of fool’s gold.

We’ve been waiting for the better part of a decade for some order to emerge from the chaos. The union took a firm guiding hand and imposed structure on the industry. A major Internet-age player consolidating the online space to create a dominant clearinghouse, hopefully operating on a meritocratic and transparent basis. Someone to lead us out of the wilderness and establish order.

Those things aren’t coming.

The union remains too focused elsewhere and too sclerotic in its processes, despite the best efforts of some of the leading lights in our industry. It’s been demonstrated that even with millions of dollars, consolidating the online space is too much for any industry company to bite off. And the business is saturated with gurus and messiahs ranging from the truly career-shaping to purveyors of the foulest snake oil, but none of whom have a one-size-fits-all answer for everyone.

The Wild West is Getting Wilder

One gun won’t keep your career safe in the new VO landscape. If all your eggs are in online casting, with a single agent or three, relying on SEO or strictly your own self-marketing, you’re at a disadvantage.

Agents are under pressure due to declining broadcast rates and an over-saturation of talent in the LA & NYC markets in particular. They are still the gatekeepers of the best work, but competition is fierce.

Online casting is morphing into an ever-more-diverse space featuring everything from honest matchmaking-only sites with numerous great jobs to corporate profit centers to start-ups, fly-by-nights, and gig-economy soul traps where you trade your voice for beer money. Figuring which is no easy task, especially if you don’t follow the constant buzz churn on social media. To effectively gain traction through online casting, mastering at least 2-3 sites is essential. No single site will sustain a career. The risk of having your income heavily weighted in a marketplace that may fail, run into reputational/ethical issues, or experience other shocks is to be avoided.

Self-marketing and cold-calling are the answer for many. Still, cold leads, by definition, pan out less frequently than hot leads, and not everyone has the personality or constitution to pick up the phone and sell themselves while experiencing mostly rejection. Cold-call clients can be loyal and lucrative, but it can take dozens of approaches before landing one, and discipline is critical.

The growing number of curatorial-minded buyers forsaking both traditional hiring avenues and online casting is a great source of walk-in work through your website, but SEO is a fine art that usually requires hiring a pro and an investment of time and money.

It’s enough to give a gunslinger fits.

Things aren’t going to change, folks, at least not for the time being. Unless and until the union or a much bigger online beast (think Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc…,) invests the dozens or even hundreds of millions necessary in structuring and dominating the voiceover industry, the West will continue to grow wilder. We’re a friendly lot, but we are playing at survival of the fittest and savviest, and if you want your career to be as strong or stronger five years from now as it is today, it’s time to saddle up and make sure you keep your wits about you. The VO world will only continue to change. Stay diversified. Keep your eyes on 3-5 years down the road. Anticipate what’s next. If you see the whole industry moving one way, see what might be down the opposite road or at least off a side path. Change is the only constant.

Are you ready?

It was the third week of a nearly month-long trip when my lovely wife Anna and I arrived in Los Angeles for the 2018 installment of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences signature weekend featuring the That’s Voiceover expo and the Voice Arts Awards gala. We were joined by a gaggle of friends and colleagues who help make our various industry business ventures run smoothly, including JMC Demos Lead Audio Engineer AJ McKay, brilliant media manager Brigid Reale, and the multi-talented Jenn Henry who supports us in so many ways.

This weekend has become our annual pilgrimage and is always the highlight of our November. Over the past few years, we have witnessed both the That’s Voiceover expo and the Voice Arts Awards emerge as industry-defining forces, where careers are advanced and talent dreams come true as they are recognized for their hard and often lonely work. The glitz and glamor isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I have come to see it as a much-needed boost for voice actors who are too often isolated in their booths, toiling day after day without recognition beyond that of appreciative clients. Our industry is packed with talent who deserves a moment in the sun, and the SOVAS weekend offers them just that.

That’s Voiceover, held this year at the Sheraton Universal hotel for the first time, was a tremendous start to the weekend. Easily the best iteration to date of this event, a well-laid-out space made for great networking opportunities throughout the day, and created a buzz and social dynamic that was a match for any event in the industry. Packed from start to finish with quality content, including the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, and dozens of other industry leaders, the sense of enrichment gained by the attendees was clear. For the fourth year in a row, it was my honor to present the SOVAS Academic Scholarship, awarded to Paul Cartwright this year.

The festivities didn’t end there, though. Sunday brought possibly record sales for local makeup artists and hairdressers as voice actors from around the world made themselves red-carpet-ready. And the red carpet didn’t disappoint. Featuring celebrity power in the form of Sigourney Weaver, Rosario Dawson, Van Jones, and others, the who’s who of voiceover made themselves at home as they celebrated their various nominations and those of their friends. Joan Baker was stunned as always in a dress for the ages, and scores of dapper attendees made their way into the Warner Brothers Theater to witness an evening celebrating the best of our business.

It was a personal honor to see almost a dozen coaching clients nominated this year, and to watch Kabir Singh & Tara Langella, among others, walk away with hardware for their performances. The JMC Demos family was rewarded for another year of hard work as three of our clients, Dave Fennoy, Rosi Amador, and Jodi Krangle were recognized for Outstanding Promo Demo, Outstanding Commercial Demo, and Outstanding Narration Demo, respectively.

With another year in the books, the glamorous crowd took to the Warner Brothers lot for an epic after-party, where the vibe was unmistakably one of camaraderie and solidarity.

In an industry that is undergoing seismic shifts in the way we do business, and where interests not always aligned with what is best for talent are constantly encroaching at the margins, it is a privilege to have a weekend dedicated to raising a glass to those who make our business great, and to watching friends and colleagues bask in the limelight that their talent deserves. We can’t wait for 2019!

3 things for your VO Friday…..

1.) I find it interesting that whenever I see a “the sky is falling” post about the industry, the theme is continuously about voiceover broadcast rates. Broadcast rates have declined due to lower barriers to talent entry, changing media consumption habits, and technology. No two ways about it. I think we’ve pretty much hit the floor, but we’ll see. What’s NOT falling? Rates for non-broadcast narration. The VO middle class isn’t dying…..it has moved. It’s doing explainers, corporate/industrial narration, and E-Learning. Those who are working these genres heavily are thriving. Go to a conference and see who’s picking up the check these days. It’s not the commercial & promo voices….it’s the E-Learning folks. We adapt in this business or we die. The next time you get smacked on the head with a piece of the VO sky, look around and see if there’s somewhere else in the industry where you can stand.

Voiceover Broadcast Rates and EURO VO Retreat

2.) Somewhat further to point one, there’s another group that is still doing pretty well, broadcast or not: The truly exceptional talent among us. The market faces a glut of limited-skill talent willing to take any job at any rate. This drags down the low and lower-middle end of the market, where buyers are open to compromising on quality. However, many buyers still want quality and are perfectly happy to pay for it. I know a lot of talent, and I can’t think of any exceptional ones who are struggling. Train to greatness, and the work will come.

3.) By popular demand, no foie gras will be served at EURO VO Retreat 4 in Barcelona.

Enjoy your weekend!

Three things #5 for your VO weekend.

1.) For years the talk has been about the trend away from brick-and-mortar VO casting into the online space. Agents and casting directors are fighting hard and having some success in reclaiming part of that business, but lately, I’ve seen a surge in a new type of client. I call them Curators. Curators tend to be younger buyers who, like online casting buyers of the last ten years, are rejecting traditional casting processes. However, Curators are different in one important respect: They are also rejecting pay-to-play sites. These clients don’t want to deal with what they see as the byzantine world of old-school VO, but they look at casting sites as low rent and instinctively turn away from them. Curators instead focus on methodical internet searches to put together a shortlist of favorite talent by finding talent websites and listening to demos. These buyers tend to have strong budgets and are very open to licensing and residuals. They are the anti-establishment fair traders who relish all things organically creative and reject corporate structures and the exploitation of freelancers. In other words, they are damn good clients. You want them. But are you ready for them? What are you doing to ensure you rank highly in search for whatever types of VO you specialize in? Do you have a reliable web person or the knowledge to do it yourself? Ask yourself these questions, because the Curators are the next wave in the evolution of casting, and you want to be ready to ride that wave.

2.) Don’t be afraid to tell companies to cross out or remove silly stipulations from boilerplate contracts or vendor agreements. Many companies use a standard agreement and aren’t used to being challenged. There is no need for you to carry a million-dollar business insurance policy as a VO or to agree to drug tests or interviews with your friends and family (seriously, I’ve seen all of these.) Politely inform them that they need to remove unacceptably onerous terms from their form documents and don’t bend if they push back. And if you do agree to pee in a cup, get residuals. Or don’t. Gross.

3.) TRENDING GENRE ALERT: Gaming & Gambling. With the end of America’s gambling prohibition, there’s about to be an explosion of new gaming, betting, and fantasy sports establishments both online and offline. The VO jobs in this sector are already taking off, and they will become even more prevalent. It might be time to consider the idea of Gaming & Gambling Commercial Demos as a stand-alone thing.

Have a great weekend!