Tag: p2p

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2P or Not 2P: That is the Question

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by Joshua Alexander

CONTROVERSY!  FIRE AND BRIMSTONE!  TAR & FEATHER HIM!

Disclaimer: I already know this is going to be a long and most certainly controversial blog for those who have been involved in the voiceover industry.  Breathe easy.  I’ll say some things you’ll like; I’ll say something that will make you want to throw a microphone at me.  (Please throw 416’s or Neumanns only, as I can turn around and sell them to pay for my hospital stay.  Thanks!)  Either way, please know that I am not endorsing any one approach; I’m simply talking about what has worked for me as a voiceover businessman.  I’m fully cognizant that I’m putting myself out there on the chopping block, and going out on a limb.  So be it.  Here goes…

THE REST WAS HISTORY

Voiceovers.  It’s not what it used to be.  Is it worse, or is it better?

As J. Michael Collins stated in a recent webinar with Jon Florian on VoiceoverXtra, lower rates and fighting harder for good pay is “the new normal.”  The question here is what will you and I do to adapt and overcome?  The market has changed.

Many years ago, when puppies were the oldest animals, you’d get a call from your agent, hop in the car, drive to a recording studio, record in front of producers and technicians and end clients (maybe), and then return home and pray and wait.  Then, when you’re awarded the job, you hop in the car, drive to a recording studio, record in front of producers and technicians and end clients (maybe), and then return home and pray and wait…for a paycheck.

Now, with the advent of the Internet, home studios are springing up all over the globe, in closets and custom builds alike.  They can run anywhere from a clothes closet to a pipe-and-drape setup to a WhisperRoom or StudioBricks studio.  And they truly allow flexibility in recording and auditioning.

It used to be a situation where you could cock your eyebrow, give your head a little George-Clooney-shake swagger, and say “Call my agent.”  Now, the question looms on the horizon, especially in the state of Washington as it pertains to the National Right-to-Work foundation, are agents even necessary?  As VO Agent Alliance states:

According to the National Right-To-Work Legal Defense Foundation (nrtw.org), “a Right-to-Work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union.” Each state has its own statutes regarding this issue and should be researched online or at your library or through contacting SAG-AFTRA directly. Right-to-Work states include states include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. The remaining states are considered “closed shops.” Nearly half the country falls under Right-to-Work, which more or less renders the unions, in our case SAG-AFTRA, somewhat useless.

So where does that leave us, represented and non-represented alike?

TIME TO BEAT THE STREETS

What does all of this mean for the hardworking agent-dependent voiceover artist?  Ultimately, it means that they need to look for more work on their own.

Voiceover agents used to be the gateway to voiceover work.  “You want voiceover work?  Gotta get an agent.”  Not so anymore.

Read the rest of the article at SeattleVoiceActor.com…

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Voiceover Rates – The Biggest Threat To Our Industry

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by Hugh Edwards

What is the future of voiceover rates? That’s a very big question. It is in fact, the biggest question of our time. This blog post tackles that very subject and also what Gravy For The Brain is doing about it. We have exciting news…..and have potentially solved many of the industry rates issues.

The GFTB Rate Guide V2 is now live, and comes with many new concepts and new features.

But before we look at the V2 voiceover rate guide, let’s look at what the actual problems of the industry are regarding voiceover rates.

1. What are the Problems with Voiceover Rates in the Industry?

Over the last half decade we have seen global voiceover rates spiral downwards in what has become known as the ‘race to the bottom’. This has become a circular problem and in the main has been caused directly or indirectly by the advent of the Pay To Play (or subscription) sites, like Voices.com, Voice123, bodalgo, Mandy and so on.

(For a full list of all P2P sites, check out our very own V.O.I.D. – the Voiceover Internet Database which lists all voiceover companies, globally)

The main reasons that the P2P sites have caused this issue with voiceover rates and their degradation, are as follows:

  1. The P2P sites have not educated the hirers with regard to the average rates that are charged for average voice jobs within the industry, nor have they educated them on why the rates are traditionally averaged as they have been; it’s been left purely up to the hirers who use the sites to decide what they want to pay
  2. The P2P sites have actively encouraged the voiceover artists applying for the jobs to engage in a ‘bidding’ process. It’s a natural progression that VO’s are motivated to ‘bid lower’ voiceover rates to be able to get the work.
  3. As the industry has grown and expanded in recent years, the P2P sites have not educated the newer voice artists as to what normal/average voiceover rates are/were, and are presenting opportunities with much lower-than-normal pricing as good opportunities.
  4. Many P2P sites are heavily weighted in favour of the hirer because without jobs they cannot sustain their main income, which is the subscription fees paid by the voice artists; there is the weighted temptation to offer cheaper and cheaper rates to hirers in a hope to attract their custom.
  5. Some P2P sites are offering ‘end-to-end’ services to the hirers to cast and manage the process, so that the hirer doesn’t have to get involved, and therefore taking a much larger portion of the hirer’s budget in doing so than is paid to the voice artist doing the work-for-hire.

With that all said, we can’t blame the P2P sites for everything! While they are a key component in the reasons for degradation of current voiceover rates, there are other factors at play:

  1. The internet century is booming; there is an ever-increasing demand for content and part of that is voiceover. The vast majority of companies who did not traditionally use voiceover in their history simply do not know what ‘normal’ voiceover rates actually should be, and simply make guesses. We see here, again, a lack of education on voiceover rates.

Read the rest of the article at Gravy for the Brain…