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Imagine No Commercials……It’s Easy if You Try

When was the last time you intentionally watched a commercial while viewing a television program? If you are like most people, you were watching that program on a DVR, where you can fast forward for no commercials, or on a streaming service like Netflix where no commercials exist in the first place. Voice talent may purposefully watch commercials as a market research function, but we are distinctly unique in this pursuit. For the majority of content users, advertising is an unwelcome intrusion, avoided at almost any cost.

This is particularly true of the millennial generation, which has consistently rejected all forms of traditional advertising. Most 18-30 year olds have little affinity for traditional television, preferring to steam most of their content. Services that have little or no commercial presence are particularly popular. Watching the boob tube has become a function of disappearing demographic segments that no longer drive commerce.

A recent Washington Post article (see link below) cited alarming decline rates in traditional TV viewership. Similarly, there continues to be a shift away from terrestrial radio to the far less commercial-saturated satellite format. Moreover, statistics have shown that even internet pre-roll advertising on sites like YouTube is impacted by shifting expectations among target demographics. “Skip this ad” options are selected as soon as they are available, and many people abandon the selected content if they are forced to watch a commercial against their will. Furthermore, even if they do stick around, the advertiser runs the risk of having created a negative association instead of a positive one, and poisoning the very customer they intended to capture.

Remember, younger generations won’t be young forever. In ten years, some millennials will be entering their forties, and their children’s attitudes will be shaped by their own.

What does this mean for the voiceover industry?

Let’s envision the no commercial VO marketplace in 2025. Media will be more interactive, with 3D and its successors becoming more prominent. Content marketing will evolve to capture not just the attention but the engagement of a generation unwilling to experience passive advertising. Movie trailers will no longer use voice, instead becoming immersive experiences with the audience selecting content via instant feedback inputs. Broadcast television will have evolved into an almost entirely streaming medium, where advertisers will learn to hawk their wares in more subtle and interactive ways. Vignettes with stars and episodic content will have replaced the classic commercial spot, and any VO present in the content will be narrative and storytelling in nature.

Radio will only be a few steps behind, with cars embedding satellite radio and its offspring almost universally as costs decline. With the vehicle market shifting towards driverless cars in the next 10-20 years, radio itself may begin to see the end of its usefulness, as passengers can engage in video and communications content during their trip without endangering their safety.

Thus, as the voicoever industry remains transfixed today by the holy grail of national campaigns with heavy residuals, we may be entering into a period of rapid transition to a VO world where commercial work essentially no longer exists.

Terrifying yes, but it doesn’t mean the end for us.

As commercial VO begins its inevitable decline, we can take solace in the sectors of our industry that are growing rapidly; E-Learning, internal corporate narration, internet video narration and explainers, animation, video games, and audiobooks.

These segments have seen exponential growth in the past few years, and the evolution of media suggests that the growth will continue unabated for the foreseeable future. As impressions and consumer buy-in to these segments grow, we have the opportunity to begin reimagining rate structures for new media that will allow the transition away from commercial work to be less intimidating.

This should be a particular point of emphasis in video games and internet spaces, as these areas are already overtaking broadcast commercials in terms of audience. As this new media rises, talent, and those who represent us both among agencies, unions, and guilds like World Voices should begin insisting that pay climbs in a manner commensurate with viewership, as the added value of the VO in these media achieves the same critical mass as it currently has in broadcast work.

The industry is changing, as it always has. As talent, we must prepare for what is next, lest we find ourselves overtaken by it.

Are you ready?

*http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/03/11/americans-are-moving-faster-than-ever-away-from-traditional-tv/

Why Online Casting Sites Are The Future of Voiceover, But Low Rates Don’t Have To Be

by J. Michael Collins 7 Comments

The online casting marketplaces for voice talent have exploded in the past ten years. Between Voices.com, Voice123.com, bodalgo.com, and others, 300-500 jobs are being cast daily through online sites via public and private channels. This number easily equals (and probably exceeds) all agency jobs being cast through more traditional means on a given day. As we look to the future of voiceover, the fear of change has been, and remains, quite palpable. But, wait.

With this exponential growth come the teething pains accompanying any game-changing paradigm shift within an industry. Hyperbole is mixed with legitimate concerns about the business model, including rates, competition, ethics, and the direction in which the people behind the online casting sites wish to see the industry go.

Naturally, this uncertainty leads to personal divisions among talent and occasional sniping. Many of the loudest voices of antagonism can be found with surprising ease on the front pages of sites trumpeting cheap voice talent and with hundred-dollar-a-holler rate cards hiding in plain sight. None of us are saints in this regard, however, it is quite clear that wherever there is vitriol, hypocrisy will not be far behind.

Alas, I stand guilty. Infrequently, but too often, I have found myself tempted by the easy money of a low-budget job that will only take a few minutes of my time. I offer no defense; It is sheer greed. Typically, once the job is completed and I have been paid, I find myself feeling a lot like I feel after eating fast food; Guilty and a little sick to my stomach.

Every time I accept substandard pay…..every time ANYONE accepts substandard pay….it harms all of us, and it sends the message to the online casting sites and clients at large that if they press hard enough, we will buckle.

The allure of quick and easy money is not only damaging to our industry, it is also entirely unnecessary. We have been led, falsely, to believe that the business is inundated with talent, and that if we don’t take whatever is offered, someone else equally qualified will.

Maybe someone else will accept the bargain basement rate, but I suspect they won’t be as qualified as you think.

It is a pernicious myth that the supply side of the voiceover business is saturated. Tens of thousands of people nationally and globally are indeed positioning themselves as voice talent. It is equally true, however, that the number of these people who are truly talented, well-trained, technically savvy, and possessed of business intelligence is very marginal. I will be shocked if more than five thousand people in the USA are earning a full-time living as voice talent. Even that number may be high. A quick listen to the auditions on an average online job will show around 80% of submissions to be non-viable for technical or ability-based reasons. Even the vast majority of talent with agency representation does not make a living in voiceover.

This means that we, my fellow talent, are in control of the future of voiceover. We just don’t know it.

I have said many times and will say many times again, that there is far more work out there than there is quality talent to do it. In other words, we have pricing power, and it is up to us to exercise it. The time to do so is now.

Here are two thoughts on the future of voiceover that will terrify a lot of people.

1.) The online casting sites aren’t going away. They will only continue to grow and become more profitable, wielding proportionally more influence in our industry and over how we do business.

2.) The online casting model, which means the concept of an easy-to-use portal for those who need voices to find voices, is the future of this business. That doesn’t mean that it necessarily has to follow the same structure as it does today or that it will even be the same companies at the forefront (though it may well be,) but it means that the idea of aggregating jobs through clearinghouse sites is the way this and every other freelance business is going. We had better get used to it.

That means it is incumbent upon us, those who hold the trump card of supply, to shape the future of how we are presented to those with demand. It is also our responsibility to watch our own backs because no one else is going to do it for us. The people in charge of the online casting sites are not bad. I know many of them personally, and I can tell you that they are good-hearted, genuine people who love their families and kids just like we do. Nevertheless, they are business owners and would be remiss in their duty to their employees and investors if they did not maximize profits to the best of their ability. If you expect companies to place anything above profit, I invite you now to return from the 1950s and rejoin us in the real world.

This means we must shape the system’s future from within, not by assailing it from the sidelines. Far better to be the man (or woman) in the arena. It means that we must make clear to the powers that the brightest future, from which they can generate maximum profit, is not a high volume/low-cost model that degrades quality and leads to burnout but a world with fair rates and motivated talent.

How do we do this? First and foremost, we draw a line in the sand on pricing. We collectively and publicly agree to never charge a per-project price below a certain level. I have my number in mind, and we should begin a conversation on a figure representing the minimum value of our talent and skill.

I believe that only through collective refusal to work for less will we be able to effectively establish a permanent fair pricing model. If clients have no choice, they will pay. Let there be no doubt that any business with the budget to secure airtime or produce an internet video or casual app game is fully capable of compensating the talent who will add final value to the product in a manner that reflects the profit they will derive. Companies pleading poverty are pleading falsely.

Whatever has happened in the past, let us declare a new day in our industry and refuse to work for anything less than a minimum number that reflects our training, investment, and work quality. I believe we can achieve a consensus on a figure, and I will be the first to publicly pledge to abide by it. I encourage and challenge my fellow talent to do the same.

In addition to the professional minimum, we should work with organizations like WorldVoices to develop standard non-union minimums for different types of work. We should educate our peers when they are not adhered to. The message of talent pricing power should be shouted from every rooftop.

We should also utilize online casting sites thoughtfully and be aware that there are ways to maximize our profitability through them and protect the value of our work. Many myths are propagated about the terms and policies of online sites and future of voiceover. Allow me to address some of the more harmful ones.

Rights and Usage:

There is a common belief that it is the policy of the major sites that every project must be surrendered in perpetuity in all media to the client. This is not necessarily true.

Voice123 states clearly that you are agreeing to a final price for the work based on the terms posted by the client. This means that if they list that the project is for national TV broadcast, you surrender lifetime rights in that medium. However, the language is clear in that you only surrender the work for the indicated usage. If it were optioned for radio, internet, or another usage, you would be well within your rights to bill for additional compensation. Obviously, it is up to you to monitor this, which is tricky, but the language is not as broad as people think. Furthermore, you are perfectly able to add clauses in your proposal limiting rights and can add language indicating that accepting your proposal binds the client to those terms.

This last point is even more relevant to Voices.com and the future of voiceover. The sixth point in their terms of service states that all projects are full buyouts unless otherwise agreed in writing. I recently had a student encounter an issue with a client who used those terms to hold him to a very low fee for national broadcast rights. I contacted Voices.com about the matter, and they agreed that while the boilerplate TOS language is the default rights agreement, we are welcome to add language in our proposals that supersedes the standard terms.

Therefore, despite common belief, we retain ultimate control of our product on both major sites. Along with the future of voiceover.

There also exists the often-repeated canard that Voices.com does not allow you to contact the client directly and that SurePay is an evil mechanism to keep you from ever getting at the golden goose of repeat direct business. This is wrong in two ways.

First, while Voices.com does not allow you to include your contact information in your proposal, based on talent feedback to that policy they explicitly agreed to allow us to post our contact information on our profile pages. I have been hired directly from my page outside of the system hundreds of times, as have many other leading talents on the site.

Furthermore, once you book a job on Voices.com, you are given the client’s contact information under the “Payments” tab, and they are given yours. I have been personally told by people at the highest level of the company that their policy is strictly that any job posted to Voices.com should be completed through SurePay, but that we are more than welcome to contact the client directly after the job has been booked and work with them outside the site on other projects. Contrast this with the policy of some secondary and freelance sites, which looks downright benevolent. Heck, even agents don’t let you take full fare from your client after giving them ten percent of the first job.

So long as this policy doesn’t change, Voices.com is showing a very balanced approach to preserving their financial interest (which is their job) and being reasonable with those who generate their profits. Moreover, Voices.com has taken the lead in at least setting some sort of minimum, with no work running through the site for under $100 gross. While we need to move this number upwards for the sake of our collective prosperity and the future of voiceover, Voices should be credited for at least holding this line.

Let me be clear; The online casting sites are not on your side. They are not against you either. They are not good or evil, wrong or right. They are simply marketplaces where we trade our wares, and like any vendor at any marketplace, we pay the rent so that we can make a profit.

In this industry, there will always be hands in our pockets.

Our duty is to make sure our hands are deeper in theirs.

A Bird in the Hand……..

by J. Michael Collins Leave a Comment

Our regular clients are the lifeblood of our business. Chasing new jobs is exciting, but the relationships we build over the years are sustaining. There’s unlikely a single full-time pro out there hasn’t had a slow week saved by a big order from a return customer. Without repeat business, we would be voicing in between slurps of lukewarm Ramen.

Repeat business, however, is never a certainty. Clients can be loyal as a faithful hound…..right up until their boss decides it is time for a younger, hipper, older, other-gendered, foreign, convernouncery sound! So, is there any way to protect the revenue from the established relationships you have nurtured so diligently?

The answer is yes. Retainers!

A great business strategy to preserve income in the coming year is to evaluate the clients who keep coming back on a weekly or monthly basis as prospects for prepaid retainers. With few exceptions (Work as the signature voice of a television show or a particular animated character come to mind,) most of your clients carry some risk of moving in a different direction in the next twelve months for any variety of reasons.

Why risk it?

Every November, I choose a handful of my most regular clients and offer them retainer packages with incremental discounts depending on volume ordered. Discounts can be as high as 25% for a large volume of prepaid work. While I don’t usually consider discounts a good strategy for a VO career, in the case of prepaid volume retainers, it makes sense. Think of it like buying insurance from the house at the blackjack table. You are sacrificing a relatively small portion of likely, (But not guaranteed) gains in exchange for the certainty of a positive result. The reward is a year’s worth of work paid up front and the strong possibility that the retainer will be renewed once exhausted. Moreover, in some cases, clients will fail to use all of the work under retainer in the allotted time (Mine are generally 12-18 months.) This allows for additional revenue opportunities as well.

Having lots of birds in the bushes gives a feeling of security that can sometimes be false. Much better to have them in the pot.

How Voiceover Success is Like a TACO

by J. Michael Collins 12 Comments

Everybody likes tacos….some of us a little too much (just ask my doctor!) Whether loaded with beef, chicken, cheese, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, or other healthy things, a good taco can turn a bad day around. What does this have to do with voiceover success, you might already be asking yourself? Has J. Michael finally lost his mind after countless hours locked in a small booth talking into his Neumann?

Well, possibly…..(my wife is shaking her head, “yes,” in the background,) but, just like my waistline, voiceover success can be defined by a taco as well….actually, not a taco, but TACO.

What is TACO? TACO is an acronym that is everything you need to know about creating voiceover success. Remember these four simple letters, and you will be on the right path.

T-Stands for TALENT

Well, J. Michael, that’s obvious, isn’t it? Not as obvious as you think. Natural talent is an essential part of making it in the voiceover industry. Talent is comprised of two things: 1.) A voice people want to listen to, and 2.) Some inherent ability to deliver copy in a manner that connects with your audience.

This is why having your voice heard by an established industry professional BEFORE you go out and buy fancy microphones, preamps, and spend thousands on building a rocking home studio is a good idea. Find a local studio where you can attend workouts, and get yourself heard. Or, schedule a one hour copy-reading session with a reputable coach who will give you honest feedback. There are hundreds of coaches, (including myself,) who would be happy to work with you, and provide a frank evaluation of your raw abilities.

Voiceover is kind of like sports. Coaching can make an average talent good, and a good talent great, but some measure of natural ability, a good voice, some delivery instincts, and a bit of acting skill, has to be present from the beginning. If they aren’t there, your path will be long and frustrating…..so get a qualified opinion BEFORE you build a home studio, spend hundreds or thousands on demo reels, join the P2Ps, or purchase a 6-month coaching package. An hour of copy reading is enough for a professional to tell you if the building blocks are there or not, and to prescribe a course of instruction if they are.

A-Stands for AUDIO

So, your evaluation went well, eh? Got the chops, do ya? Great! Now, the hard part. Somewhere along the way, people started to believe that plugging a Blue Yeti into your laptop was all you needed to do to call yourself a pro. Really, it’s true. I cast for many of my clients through Voices.com & Voice123, and folks, if your sound isn’t up to par, it doesn’t matter how good your read is. I press STOP after less than ten seconds on about 40% of auditions I hear because the audio just isn’t good enough.

This doesn’t mean you have to spend ten grand on acoustical foam and soundproofing, but here are some simple steps to get you pointed in the right direction:

1.) Make sure your signal chain is passable. The RODE NT1A is a good entry-level PRO microphone and will fit most budgets. Based on the design of the Neumann TLM 103, it is a popular mic among radio stations throughout the US, and many VOs use it as well.

A decent preamp will make you crisp and clear. Many varieties in the $200-$500 range will be a good start.

2.) Listen to a commercial on TV or the radio. Do you hear any hiss, echo, line noise, or room tone? Are there dogs barking in the background? Probably not. You will have trouble booking any work if these things are in your audio.

Your audio needs to sound warm, clear, and unprocessed. It needs to sound like what you hear on the air. If it doesn’t, more work needs to be done to treat your space, whether that means expensive soundproofing and acoustical paneling or homemade solutions like memory foam & clothes racks…it has to SOUND like you are in a professional studio, even if you are recording from your wife’s walk-in closet!

There are so many talented folks out there who are having their auditions discarded because the audio quality is poor…don’t be one of them! If you are in doubt, consult with a pro, whether an audio tech or an established VO professional.

C-Stands for COMMITMENT to Voiceover Success

Becoming a successful voice talent is a process. Whether you are looking to build your career through the agency-based VO world or online through the P2P sites, it takes time to get noticed, no matter your talent level. I arrived on the P2P sites with fifteen years of full-time VO experience, and it still took me six months to book my first ten jobs. For many, it will be slower than that.

Success in this field results from talent combined with extreme persistence and commitment and strong business-building skills. Looking for agency gigs in a major city? Be prepared to send out dozens, even hundreds of demos…..and the demos better be AWESOME! Have a strong cover letter and a compelling headshot (some still require these), and be prepared to wait months for a reply. While you’re at it, start networking. Attend every local VO event you can find. Get known, and get noticed. Market yourself to local studios, production companies, and businesses. Book gigs through old fashioned legwork. Besides, if you bring a great client to an agency, that can fast-track you for representation.

Want to be successful on Voices.com & Voice123.com? Be prepared to ride your computer like a champion thoroughbred. If you aren’t doing twenty auditions per day, you aren’t doing enough. The highest booking talents online are landing no more than 10% of their reads, and that is on a good week. The more ears you get your voice in front of, the more work you will book. Simples.

Market yourself online. Write a blog, join in discussions on the various fora, get your NAME, and your BRAND out there. The more visible you are, the more seriously you will be taken.

Never stop. If the talent and the audio quality are there, you WILL book work eventually. Every third client you book will turn into a repeat customer. It may take two or three years, but eventually the hard work will pay off, and jobs will walk in the door as often as you have to chase them. There IS light at the end of the tunnel….even if it is a long tunnel.

O-Stands for ORGANIZATION

Repeat after me. “I am not a performer. I am a business.” This is rule one of voiceover success. Assuming the first three parts of your TACO are in order, this is the hot sauce that will make it a meal. Create systems for every part of your VO business. Administrative, accounting, auditioning, production, communication, marketing, networking, and so on.

I have a structured process for filing my audio, keeping my books, sending payment reminders when necessary, and doing the other VO grunt work in a manner that minimizes time lost to administrative and accounting functions.

Become proficient with your audio editing software. A dry :60 should take you five minutes max to edit. If you aren’t there yet, go online and find tutorials to help you get there. Efficiency is key. If you do a lot of long-form narration, consider hiring outsourced audio editors to help you save time to focus on booking more work. I employ four people almost full-time in this capacity. Found them on Elance and Freelancer. They do GREAT work…for $15-20/hour. Why edit a 60-minute training module yourself when you can pay a professional $30-60 to do it for you and have 2-3 extra hours to dedicate to booking the next job?

Have an auditioning strategy. Be decisive about which jobs to audition for. Make sure they are a good fit budget and spec-wise. If they aren’t, delete and move on. Audition as the jobs come in if you are working online, (the same goes for agency castings looking for remote-recorded samples.) If you are recording something for a client, keep an eye on your email, and when the auditions are posted, pause and POUNCE! Early submission is essential both online and with your agents. Don’t wait! If you have a day job, clear the auditions in order of newness, (least submissions,) and budget/work ratio. If you aren’t on a tight deadline for client work, do your auditions FIRST!

Answer your emails as they come in. If this means pausing in the middle of a long project, so be it. There’s nothing worse than recording for an hour and having twenty new messages to answer, which will take time away from other booking-critical functions. Furthermore, your clients will love your responsiveness if you get back to them in a matter of minutes, and you will gain customer loyalty.

Voiceover Success Takes Work Every Day

Market yourself every day, if you have time. It’s 3PM and there are no auditions left in your inbox..no client work to do? Write a blog post, send emails to production companies and businesses, create a newsletter for clients…whatever you do, DON’T go watch that old Seinfeld rerun, (am I dating myself here?) Make every hour of your workday count!

Have a networking strategy. Attend local events, and get active online. Find the best resources that fit your situation, and spend time getting to know people daily. Connections are EVERYTHING in this business.

Ultimately, have a PLAN. How do you intend to build your business? If you can answer that question conclusively, you have just added the perfect topping to a very profitable TACO.

Good luck, my friends!

All the best,

J. Michael Collins
www.jmcvoiceover.com
jmichael@jmcvoiceover.com