Voicebank Update
For many years, Voicebank listed not just agents & directors, but production companies and other excellent resources to help voice talent to find new clients. I myself used it to supplement my contact database for many years. The website now only lists agencies. I’m not exactly sure when this happened but it’s my understanding it happened after the Voices Dot Com acquisition of Voicebank. Whether it has anything to do with the Business Wire announcement below, I’m not entirely sure.
I also have an unconfirmed report that a talent agency has closed or will close their voiceover department with Voicebank being a contributing factor. After asking for confirmation from the agency in question, I was given a “no comment” reply. Out of respect for that agency I won’t share who it is.
Voices Dot Com Update
Last week, an article on Business Wire appeared stating that:
Voices Dot Com, the largest global online marketplace for voice actors and audio production services, today introduced an offering designed to give talent agencies a modern, online presence and exclusive access to union casting calls posted by producers. Producers, meanwhile, will now be able to hire union voice actors and celebrities represented by talent agencies. Already the leader in freelance voice casting, this addition marks Voices.com’s entry into the union voice over casting space, and builds further on Voices.com’s strength of connecting voice actors with businesses and brands. Answering a longstanding request from producers, the result is an expanded platform that can meet almost any voice over need.
TIP OF THE WEEK
What do these recent developments concerning Voices Dot Com and Voicebank mean, if anything?
It looks to me like VDC is setting up Voicebank to be a direct portal for agents to cast their projects via VDC and announcing their intent via the article to land big agents and celebrities. Personally, I don’t think celebrities give a rat’s nose about the voiceover industry, not even the ones like Morgan Freeman who are famous for their voiceover work. Morgan Freeman is not a voice talent, he is a celebrity who does celebrity endorsements using his voice. This not is a disparagement of Morgan Freeman at all. He seems like a really nice guy, actually. I just don’t think any of this is on his radar nor should it be.
As to an agency not casting voice talent anymore because of the VDC acquisition of Voicebank, I did predict that some agents may go out of business because they were too dependent on Voicebank in this blog entry. This isn’t exactly going out of business, but closing a part of their agency isn’t necessarily a good thing. Who knows, maybe it will improve their business because they are streamlining.
The reaction in the voiceover community to these recent events has ranged from apathy to outrage. Nobody with any certainty knows what any of the events over the past few months portend for the voiceover industry. All I can say is what I’ve been saying for years: focus on your craft, clients, and colleagues and don’t be a jerk.
If you do feel strongly about what has taken place or even just curious: contact your agents, casting directors, clients, and local SAG-AFTRA representative to keep them in the loop. Find out if they know what is happening, how they feel about it, and whether these events have had any effect on their livelihood.
NEWS AND NOTES
Tuesday, October 24th-November 9: Going to the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over conference (MAVO) in 2018? How would you like an early-bird discount? Just enter the promo code “MAVODheere” and you will get $25 off your registration fee! Be sure to do it by November 9th @6PM EST to get the discount.
Tuesday, October 24th: my next Edge Studio “Marketing 201” webinar topic will be ‘Keeping Clients Coming Back’. Click here to sign up.
Thursday, October 26th: my next Edge Studio “Business and Money 201” webinar topic will be ‘Time Management’. Click here to sign up.
November 1st to December 15th: ACA Enrollment
Voices Now has a podcast! It’s called The Vision Podcast and you can check it out here: http://voicesnow.com/Vision-Podcast. To quote their website:
Vision is a new podcast series produced by VoicesNow with the intent of communicating positive messages to the world through professionally produced audio Podcasts. The goal of these programs is to offer inspiring stories that promote kindness, courage, forgiveness, love and unity.
Speaking of podcasts, I’m going to be a guest of not one but two podcasts in the near future! Details to come…
HAPPY HAPPYS
Happy Pasta Day and Smart Is Cool Day!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
You know why it’s best living at the water’s edge? Because you’ve only got ***holes on three sides of you. And if they’re coming from the other way you can hear them splash. George Carlin
From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, The H is Silent, but I’m Not.
Tom Dheere is a 20-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.
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