Dear voice-over shopper:
Thank you so much for getting in touch! Before we get down to business, may I ask you a question?
Would you ever bid on a project without knowing the specifics?
Let’s assume you’re in the construction industry. A prospect sends you an email asking:
“How much for a building? Give me your best price!”
Could you honestly answer that question? Of course not. Yet, I receive emails every day, asking:
“How much for a voice-over? Give me your best price!”
… as if we’re talking about the cost of a Big Mac or a quart of milk. Even that differs depending on where you live.
If you were a builder who was asked to come up with an accurate estimate, you’d minimally need to know what purpose the construction would serve (commercial or residential); you’d have to know where it will be located, how big it needs to be, when it needs to be finished etcetera, etcetera.
Voice-over professionals are no different. They’re independent contractors. They need to know what purpose their recording will serve, in what market it will play, how long the script is and how soon you need it (among other things).
Without specifics, any bid is based on pure guesswork and not on the particulars of your project.
“Then why” -you might ask- “are so many of your colleagues willing to plug in just about any number -no questions asked?”
I’ll answer that question with a question.
Would you trust a builder who’d name a price knowing hardly any details of the project? Or would you consider that to be… unprofessional?
STANDARDS, ANYBODY?
The voice-over industry is populated by seasoned pros, hopeful hobbyists and anything in between. With today’s technology, it’s so easy to plug a mic into a computer and hang up a sign saying:
“Voice for Hire. Will work for the experience.”
There are no requirements, no regulations and no standards.
What would happen if the construction industry would operate that way?
Some might argue that that’s an unfair comparison. When builders don’t follow regulations, people could get hurt. No one’s ever going to get harmed by an unprofessional voice-over artist, right?
Think again, and let’s zoom in on Medical Narrations. What would happen if the name of a medication would be mispronounced or if the narrator messes up the dosage? What would happen if a procedure would be read in such a way that it could be misconstrued?
These are extreme examples. I agree. How about something less serious: Audio Tours.
Imagine hundreds of tourists getting stranded on a hot summer’s day because the narrator had instructed them to go left instead of right. Among the group members are elderly people, pregnant women and folks with various medical conditions.
That’s not just a ‘small oversight on the part of an inexperienced narrator’.
That’s a lawsuit in the making!
THE REAL DEAL
Professionals do their homework. When a voice talent gets back to you with specific questions, that person is not trying to be a pain in the neck. It’s a sign of professionalism. It means that you’re not getting the cookie cutter treatment. It’s an indication that this person takes his or her job and your project seriously. Please remember:
Amateurs passively plug in guesstimates. Pros ask questions and give informed quotes.
There’s a reason why the word pro is part of ‘pro-active.’
Think of it this way: your voice-over project is a destination. If your end-client does not provide you with a clear description, how can you be sure that you’ll ever get there? Without the right information, you’re setting yourself up for failure, as well as the talent you’re hoping to hire.
Let’s assume the end-client asks for fruit and you come back with the juiciest orange ever to hang from a tree. It could have been a lucky guess. But what if your client says:
“Oh come on… I didn’t want a boring orange. I had an orange yesterday. You should have brought me an apple. A green apple. From Holland.”
THE BLAME GAME
Now, it’s easy to point the finger and blame your unspecific client. But blame is lame and disempowering. The ball was in your court. What did you do with it?
Not only are you now wasting your own time; you’ve just posted a vague project on a casting site and hundreds of voice-over talents are wasting their time recording a custom demo that’s nothing more than a shot in the dark.
Some of you might respond: “That’s just too bad. It’s part of the industry. It’s always been like that and it will never change. You win some. You lose some. And if you don’t like it, go do something else.”
That might be true, but does it really have to be that way? It’s the twenty-first century. Are we still running the industry based on these inefficient, expensive, last century old-school ideas?
IT ALL ADDS UP
Please consider this: how long will it take you to weed through all these shot-in-the-dark submissions? You might end up picking a very affordable talent, but -thinking of your hourly rate- how much did all that weeding just cost you and your company? Don’t you have better things to do than listen to auditions that totally miss the mark?
If you expect talent to be on target, give them a fair chance to hit the bull’s-eye.
Tell them what you’ll be listening for in as much detail as possible. If not for the sake of the voice talent, do it for your own sake. You’ll get much better results in less time.
Here are a few other tips. Don’t worry, they won’t cost you anything!
• Language. Don’t just put “Spanish” if you really need a speaker from Chile. Otherwise you’ll get accents from wherever Spanish is spoken. (more on accents in this article)
• Age. When you need a young and energetic sound and you’re not clueing us in, don’t be surprised to receive demos from mellow middle-aged matriarchs and serious sounding seniors (as well as from blogging voice-overs who love alliteration).
• Budget. You say that you want to hire an experienced voice talent. Do you really think you’ll get one for a hundred bucks? Try this experiment: go to a jewelry store and shop for a 24 carat diamond. When you’ve picked out a nice rock, tell them you wish to get it at the price of a cubic zirconia. Let me know how that worked out for you.
I assume that you take pride in your work, just as we take pride in ours. Don’t devalue what we do. Believe me: it’s not as easy as it sounds.
• Expertise. If you don’t want to pay a pro, why don’t you ask Sam in Receiving to record that power point presentation you’re about to give to potential investors. It’s only the future of your company that’s at stake.
Cindy the secretary has a nice voice too. Perhaps she’s willing to do that phone greeting that will be heard by thousands of customers every day. It’s not our job to determine how you want your company image to be perceived by the rest of the world.
• Editing. If you expect a talent to deliver clean, edited audio, don’t assume that someone will throw that in for free. First of all, editing is a special skill and not every talent has mastered that skill.
Secondly, it takes an experienced editor at least twice as long to clean up the audio as the time needed to record it. People deserve to be compensated for their time and expertise. Aren’t you?
• Payment. Don’t be surprised if we ask you to pay 50% upfront and the remainder upon receiving the recording. Some colleagues won’t record a word without getting paid in full first. You see, we haven’t established a relationship yet, and most of us have been burned in the past. Did that band you hired for the office party require money upfront? Did the hotel ask you for a deposit at the time you reserved that conference room?
Don’t take it personally. We run a voice-over business; not a collection agency. We give you our word (literally) that we’ll deliver the goods. In fact: we will WOW you! Please PayPal your down payment so we can get the ball rolling.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you happened to detect a slight sarcastic undertone in my writing, please know that I’m aware of that. It’s a bad habit and I’m working on it. Just not today.
Secondly: not all voice-seekers are created equal, and it’s not right to put all of you into the same category. You’ve got to make a living too and make your boss happy by hiring the best talent at a reasonable price.
I’m confident that we can meet in the middle, and I’m committed to making your product or service shine as if it were my own. You and I are in the same boat:
Happy customers are our best credentials.
Testimonials from satisfied clients are stories that can never be accurately reflected in the most detailed of rate sheets.
Quality will always be remembered long after the bill has been paid.
Now… let’s talk some business, shall we?!
Sincerely,
Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice
PS Voice seekers are not the only ones trying to get more out of you for less. My next article is about Internet Casting Services taking it to the extreme.
Related Posts
A Sundial In The Shade- Pay-to-Play: Dracula or Frankenstein?
STOP PLAYING THE BLAME GAME
HOW TO MAKE IT AS A NEW VOICE ACTOR WITH NO CREDITS AND LITTLE EXPERIENCE
TOP DUTCH VOICE ACTOR SINGS HIS HEART OUT
WHAT MAKES A GOOD eLEARNING NARRATOR?
WHEN NORMAL IS SPECIAL
There’s a new VO show. Watch at your own risk!
Thanks Paul – Very well said and thought out.
It is amazing just how much the industry varies – in terms of expectations and quality of work. It also staggers me that some voice-seekers expect creative professionals to work at McD’s rates – when they are charging out $200+ per hour in their own business.
I’m happy to do gratis work for charity – but having a public company complain about rate-cards that are 1/10th of their own is a little more than insulting.
Thankfully, while it’s extremely easy to copy fashion items and shoes in the back-streets of Bangalore, that same cannot (yet!) be said for a good English voiceover!
All the best to all the professional VO’s out there.
Cheers
Andy C
http://www.gavoice.com.au
Paul
This post was music to my ears – it rang so true! I no longer get involved in bidding opportunities. I briefly trialed a subscription-based voice over audition site, but quickly cancelled it as it was far too random and time-consuming – I realised that my time was better spent on marketing myself in the right way, which is much more rewarding.
As far as what I would say to voice-seekers, I occasionally get prospective clients asking for my best price, sometimes informing me that others are willing to provide the service for ‘X’. If I get any of those, I tend to politely move them on.
I think that the above exampled voice-seekers miss the point. If you’ve decided that your project is important enough to hire a professional voice over to make a positive impact on you or your client’s business, then I would suggest focusing on the quality/vocal type you’re looking for, and the professionalism of the propective voice over talent, as you’ll invariably get what you pay for.
Also loved your comment about Editing – I get that all the time; ‘oh it’s only about a 5 minute piece, so it should only take you about 5 minutes to do, right? !
http://lindsayabbott.com
As ever a great piece of writing.
Quoting is one of my great fears, and something I hope to overcome at VOICE2010. As for standards, I’d encourage all to get behind SaVoa, as this is one of its main objectives. Independent peer accreditation can only be good for all serious professionals.
Thanks for the time you spent writing this.
andy
Hi Paul,
I’m now a fan! I love your writing style, and you’re exceptionally informative.
Thanks much for the time you spend writing these.
-Tony
Thank you all for making my day! I’m glad that you seem to be enjoying my blog just as much as I enjoy writing it.
Somebody just sent me a quote that is absolutely priceless:
“Quality will be remembered long after price is forgotten.”
Ain’t that the truth!
Wow, Paul. The contents of your open letter are things that many clients have needed to be made aware of for quite some time. While I certainly cannot improve on what you’ve said, please allow me to add some other related points, in the form of a link to the blog of ProComm Studio Services. Chris Porter wrote an equally important piece, suggesting ways clients can make their scripts more ‘voice-over-friendly.’ As a comment to his blog post, I offered three additional suggestions.
If clients can make just a few simple adjustments, they can help their voice talent give a better performance which, by itself, is beneficial to the client, but in many cases can also relate to shorter, less trying sessions, and perhaps even cost savings. Here’s a link to the ProComm blog post:
http://procommss.com/wordpress/making-your-script-voice-over-friendly
You rock, Paul!
You’re preachin’ to the choir, Paul. But your target audience is deaf … maybe not so dumb when they can get what they need for the price of a MickyDs gift card. As for the time spent sifting through hundreds of auditions, they bill that out as creative services @ $250/hour.
I think I get where you’re coming from Steve, and as you can tell from my writings, I’m quite the cynic myself.
But what’s the point of repeating that what I’m saying is pointless? If you have any suggestions on this topic that are more to the point, by all means: share them! I always value your depth of experience and wealth of knowledge, and I’m sure my readers could benefit from your insights and ideas.
The Dutch have a saying that goes like this: “The best captains are on shore.” I don’t think of you as one of them. So, hop on the deck and help me set the sales in the right direction (pun intended, of course)!
Paul, you won’t convince the creatives exploiting amateurs to stuff their own pockets of anything. In my experience, that type of producer/director has no respect for talent (probably not even proven, big box office talent). Your logic will be waived off as the rantings of a prima donna. I guess you’d say that I see attempts to purify the heart of a scoundrel as a “fool’s errand.”
The big league producer/directors I’ve known wouldn’t have any trouble at all with your logic; they expect to pay for professional services. In fact, if they are hiring an unknown, they know in advance that TALENT ALWAYS GETS PAID…even if the tape is on the floor.
The only people with whom you can make in roads are inexperienced talent who need to understand their worth. The ones who have enough confidence to go into a session and give 3 solid takes, will eventually understand their worth. The ones who remain insecure in their talent will never win a negotiation with the man with the money. …another fool’s errand.
I’m with you, Paul, but I think the reality is you have to blaze your own trail until you hit the road paved with gold. There will always be talent undercutting you and scoundrels with money trying to cheat you even on the super-highway of the rich and famous.
Good luck on your mission, but I think you’d do better with a machete or a chainsaw. 😉
A “prima donna” preaching to the choir delivering a “fool’s errand”… Boy, Steve… you certainly have a way to label yours truly in the most colorful of ways. I’ve never been called a “first lady” before. I feel more like a “primo uomo” to be honest with you.
Perhaps I am dreaming the impossible dream, but remember that the Dutch know a thing or two about windmills. Without wind, they’re powerless, and if I can provide a bit of a blogging breeze in voice-overland, some wheels might (eventually) start turning. It took nine years before Cape Wind got the green light!
Perhaps it was purely coincidental, but on the same day I published the above article, voices.com published the first of a series of VoxDaily pieces on rates, quotes and editing:
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2010/04/a_discussion_about_rates.html
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2010/04/quoting_for_audio_editing_services.html
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2010/04/quoting_for_voice_over_editing_work.html
I might be preaching to the choir, but I happen to know that the Ciccarelli’s love to sing.
At the risk of tooting my own horn (but it’s my own blog so what the hay), I hope you’ve also taken a peek at my most popular articles. I only started tracking the popularity of my posts a few weeks ago, but it is clear that -based on numbers alone- my ramblings about rates and pricing have struck a chord inside and outside the voice-over world.
Perhaps not all of those readers are members of my choir. And just maybe, some of my choristers will take my message to heart and pass it on to others. After a while, this fool’s errand could become something way more serious and might even surprise the most prima donna-ish of cynics.
Even though they looked like fools and sounded like fools, court jesters had an important role to play. They’re often portrayed with a mirror in their hands. Some see my blog as one of those mirrors.
I have no problem being the jester, wearing a floppy three-pointed hat with jingle bells. And when I speak, it doesn’t always make sense to every member of the audience.
Some might even call it… Double Dutch!
Paul — I wish I had the guts and the wordcraft to convey your message in a way that certain prospective clients would “get it”.
All my clients get a personalized quote, after consult if needed.
The only way to be fair to all of us.
Blue skies — Lauren
http://www.voiceover.ca
I meant prima donna, Paul. How you feel won’t change the impressions of one of the SOBs you’re talking about.
There’s no question your work in this blog influences others of like mind. As a long time journalist you certainly know that good story ideas are always stolen, reshaped and promoted as exclusives. 😉
While I empathize with your concerns and embrace your idealistic vision, I still think you’d do better with a machete or a chainsaw.
🙂
Unless we’re talking about crybabies, I wouldn’t use the word that starts with an S and ends with a B. The Internet is filled with emotional rants and name calling, and my blog is not the place for those things. If anything, I’d love to cut that type of language and attitude out with a machete.
All idealists are unreasonable people, because they go against the status quo. Without idealists, very little is likely to change in this world.
I just came back from the annual Walk MS event, and I met hundreds of idealists who believe that a cure can be found and will be found. Without the conviction that one day, it will be possible to eradicate this terrible disease, there would be no movement and no progress.
Here’s the remarkable thing: there were no machetes and no chainsaws; just a chain of people like you and me, who saw a need and who had decided to cut out the pessimism and the cynicism, choosing hope instead. That’s where I find my inspiration!
Hi fellow voicers. Intressteing subject!!
I’m a Swedish production owner slash producer slash pro VO. That makes me some kind of ambivalent… Even though we are at the other side of the table as your employers, I think it’s really REALLY important that all professional talents keep a decent rate. Cause what would happen if we, professionals, start to do jobs for a Big Mac? Well no one would be able to be professional anymore. Not talents, not producers. Cause how would studios like ourselves try to charge the clients if the “raw material” was almost for free? We’d all be a dying breed.
Like the fancy ad agency who wanted an extremely explicit voice, a woman between 60-70 with a very unusual accent in Sweden and to have a special kind of character/tone, to voice 5 image films for a bigger client. The ad agency came to us since we have one of Scandinavias biggest voice banks, and offerd us 100 euros to cover both the casting, recording and talent fee. And it wasn’t even the April fools day!!! But how come this client even got the idea of offering this foolish amount? Well someone else has probably delivered a recording to them for peanuts in the past – so they believe you should get a good voice for nothing. That makes me both sad and worried. The same thing when agencies are about to make the final touch for their multi million euro TV campaign for a big brand – how come there is no money left for the voiceover, who will make the real difference?
We at Widevox are no saints though, sometimes we must ask our voices “are you interrested even though the budget is less than normal?” If we wouldn’t do that we’d loose too many jobs – but let’s just promise eachother – don’t accept the foolish budgets, like that Irish company who wanted me for a national TV ad for 20 euros incl studio… “it’s just a few words and you’ll do it in no time”. Let’s politly laugh to the interns who want you for their 120 minute e-learning for 50 euros. Let’s stay professional and calmly deny certain jobs.
I’ll finish off like my hero, Dr Frasier Crane.
Thanks for listening!
Thanks for sharing your side of this story, Kalle! As I said in my piece, it’s not fair to put all voice-seekers into the same category, and you just proved my point.
The only reason producers believe they can hire talent for a handout, is because there apparently are people who are willing to work for next to nothing, and because there are websites that are enabling these people to sell themselves to the lowest bidder. If you’re one of them, read this: http://bit.ly/bqyXvG
I once read that globally we spend more money on advertising than on eduction. It’s a scary statistic, but it goes to show how much money is spent and made in product promotion.
Let me ask you this: Can you imagine commercials without voice-overs? Can you think of documentaries or industrials without narration? How about instructional DVD’s, Public Service Announcements, Voice Response Systems….
All of the above would not be possible without voice actors. We can make or break a million dollar campaign. We can engage and motivate an audience. We can warmly welcome old and new customers. We can entertain and teach at the same time.
We are voice-over professionals.
Then why don’t we insist that we fully deserve and should get a significant slice of the pie? Are we lacking respect for our own profession? Are we degrading our training, our background and our craftsmanship? Are we devaluing our crucial contribution to advertising, marketing, education and cultural enrichment?
If we don’t take ourselves and our work seriously, why should others? Ultimately, we get what we deserve, and if we feel that we don’t deserve that much, we should stop complaining about rates going down and the cost of living going up.
Or we could start by charging reasonable fees that are a reflection of the added value of our work as well as respect for our unique talent.
I totally agree with you Paul. These websites that only focus on lowest possible rates, isn’t good for anyone. But it feels like more and more talents turn their backs at the biggest one (which I’d rather not name…) Too many requests/castings and too few paid jobs. I don’t even bother to answer the requests anymore, most of the users seem to search for 20 dollar-voices. It’s almost funny tha anyone can get listed which means if you’re searching for a French voice, you might end up listening to a Russian who claims he can speak 18 languages fluently, who owns a laptop with a gaming mic. So when we created Onlinevoices.com, one of our main objectives was to only allow highly professional native talents, that we know always provides us with good reads, sound quality and rapid service (when needed). Quality will always win in the end.