J. Michael Collins, the new co-owner of Voice Over Atlanta (VOA), just gave me an unexpected gift. This gift means that I’ll be a little bit busier at the March conference. Here’s what my contributions will look like:
- I’ll be on a panel about P2P’s
- I’ll be hosting a panel on voice over awards
- I’ll be doing a presentation about the biggest VO mistakes I ever made…
- and here’s the gift: I will be interviewing Rolf Veldman, the CEO of Voice123.
In case you didn’t know, Rolf and I are both Dutch, but we’ll make sure to converse in our favorite second language, English (if you ask us nicely).
Now, to make things clear from the onset, even though I’ll be interviewing Rolf, I see my role more as that of a facilitator. Bear in mind that all breakout sessions and panels are only 50 minutes, and I do want to make sure we use that time wisely.
I say “we” on purpose, because if you’re going to the conference and want to hear Rolf speak, I’m asking you to get involved. I want to bring you into the dialogue.
Let’s say you had a once in a lifetime chance to speak to Rolf Veldman about V123, what is the number one question you’d like to ask him? What do you think he absolutely needs to know?
Also:
Even though some people see me as being very critical of Pay to Plays, I don’t like to focus on problems, complaints, and controversies only. I’m not Jerry Springer, if you know what I mean. So, I’d like YOU to come up with practical recommendations that would make a platform such as V123 much better.
Let’s say your subscription is up for renewal, and you’re not sure if you’d like to pay for another year. What would need to change for you to renew your membership, and how do you see that happening?
I will gather these recommendations and find out what Rolf has to say. Let’s give him some homework, and in 2024 I’ll check in with him again, to see what he has implemented.
Even if you’re not coming to the conference, I would greatly appreciate your input. Ever so often we talk ABOUT people, instead of TO people, and as a blogger I am guilty as charged. This is your opportunity to hold Rolf’s feet to the fire, and to also give him the gift of your advice. Only when we come together as a community, we can bring about positive change!
Reach me at paul@nethervoice.com, or leave a comment below.
Thanks!
PS VO Atlanta is from March 23 – 26, 2023 at the Hilton Atlanta Airport Hotel. I can’t wait to meet you there in person!
Oh GOODY!!! I would love to ask him he would be wiling to reconsider basing his platform off of something completely intangible and out of the talents control? A like isn’t given because the client thought an audition was good. It is given because that audition happened to fit their specific idea of what they wanted. That is largely out of the talents control. (outside of audio quality and talent).
This makes it a completely ineffective algorithm. And here’s the MAIN reason why. Clients are allowed to post jobs that are vague and non-specific. They often cast their net VERY wide. All English speaking voices between 12-65 and no gender specified. So even if it’s a genre we know we excel in, the client may be looking for a male voice, when we are female- a young voice when we are old, High pitched when we are Low..etc. Then our standing on the site and the speed with which we receive opportunities is impacted because we didn’t “get a like”.
So – Would he consider either eliminating the “metrics based on likes” or changing the structure to better educate the client on a like simply meaning “I liked this audition and would consider this talent to be someone I might hire for a job in the future”- rather than “this talent fits the idea I have in my head for this specific project”. Better education would help for sure- but it will not solve the problem. I have had several Jobs where the client never liked my audition, but reached out privately. That’s great, but it doesn’t help me to succeed on the platform. And booking the job offsite means the new change up of “giving credit for booking the job, even if you didn’t get a like” to also be ineffective. There is NO way to self report. Likes are simply a terrible measurement for success on the platform. This leads me to audition less and less out of fear that my stats will drop. I think it is the largest thing holding them back from being truly able to best voicesdotsmarm. Talent can audition as often as they like without fear of losing their standing on the platform.
I LIKE this suggestion, Aleesha!
Also- while I’m asking. I would love to know if he would reconsider allowing clients to post a job with no budget, and no specification for length or usage. This creates a frustrating situation for the talent as there is no way to properly quote a job when you have no idea how long the project is, and how it will be used. There is a massive difference between an explainer for web usage and a national commercial. There is also a big difference between a 1 minute explainer and a 30 minute e-learning. However, there are many jobs a day posted without that basic information. Why not require the client to at least list the length of the job, and the usage.
I agree. Without clear parameters we are bidding blindly which makes no sense at all.
I’ve heard a couple of interviews with Rolf and the one thing that jumps out to me is that even HE doesn’t understand how V123’s algorithms work.
My question for him would be:
What’s the formula, in lay terms, for getting more auditions through voice123.com? At ALL subscription tiers. Whether it’s the $50, $300, $600 +
I’d like you to ask him that please.
Thank you,
Moose
Great suggestion! I will gladly do that, Moose.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to try to improve this P2P platform and trying to make it more professional!
As a female French Native Voice Talent, I can see that we all face the same issues: Algorithms.
An algorithm is not even able to make the difference between a male and a female voice !
No one in person listen at the demo sent (when they are listened)!
When a project requires a French recording, every French speakers can audition: Canadians, Swiss, Belgium…
I’ve heard web commercials spread on French targeted market with foreign accents. Even TV Commercials! Voice123’s CEO must understand that the final client’s reputation is negatively impacted! Instead of attracting new clients, instead of growing its business, they run away from him! And even people outside the Voice Business laugh at him ! It is a disaster!
The projects should target the final market and search for specific Talents from this geographical area. A French Canadian accent will never enter the French market in terms of marketing. The ones who believe that French is French and English is English are wrong ! It is not racism, don’t misunderstand me: this issue works with French native Voice Talents on Canadian Market too !
This comes by poor job’s description. As one of my Colleague said, many projects posted don’t provide details about potential buyout or purpose of the recording: marketing? Commercial? Corporate? Training? User guide? All these recordings can be related to videos, but the final goals are very different ! And they ARE NOT PAID THE SAME way!
Last point: no difference is made between an expert with over 20 years of experience in the Voice Industry and an absolute beginner! The beginner has no idea of how to quote a job! And sorry, but I worth more than a beginner! So my rates will obviously be much higher than his! But as this platform does not list the Talents according to their experience and knowledge, but according to “likes”, the game is very unfair!
In short:
– I would need the projects to better target the talents’ accent needed for the jobs, according to the targetted country where the recording will be used;
– Better jobs and usages’ description;
better clientt education: Voice123 is responsible for its client’s mistakes;
– Posting jobs on such P2P should be professionals to professionals!
– The Talents should be listed in different sections according to their experience: beginner, experimented, expert !
Thank you Paul
Claudia
Excellent points to bring up Claudia. So many of us have the same, not so positive experiences with Voice123, and I think Rolf will have his work cut out for him!
I probably won’t articulate this very well because frankly, I’m super frustrated with Voice123 – all P2P in general really.
I’d love to know why there seems to be no guidance for people posting jobs regarding what to enter for usage. I assume this MUST be the case because 95%+ of the things I see listed for usage are completely irrelevant.. “Online” or “for my website” or “animation” or “youtube” tell me not a damn thing I can actually provide a relevant quote against. Especially when the project is clearly going to be a paid ad of some sort.
I’d also REALLY love to know when they’re going to fix, or just outright remove, the complete travesty of an algorithm they have in place that consistently (pardon my french) fucks the talent. For over a year I was consistently in the “Top 10%” then suddenly slipped lower and lower and as a result saw less and less relevant/worthwhile opportunities to audition for. So I didn’t renew. A week or so ago I decided to give it another go, and at a much higher tier (not the highest, but the second to highest). I’ve promptly fallen from “Top 20%” to “Top 50%” within a week, and again am not seeing much of anything for opportunities..
I’m now paying $660 a quarter for stuff not worth my time to crack the mic on. Low budgets, unintelligible project detail, asking for quotes with NO detail. Certainly this isn’t all Voice123’s fault, but they sure don’t seem to give a damn about making any of it any better.
I’ll add that if things don’t change, I won’t be renewing – certainly not at $600/quarter, and not at all again, ever. Because the way this platform works today is utter bullshit. It comes across as little more than a money grab.
…and of all the P2Ps, I really WANT to live Voice123, but it’s so fundamentally broken, clearly, that I’d almost be better off lighting a pile of cash on fire in the back yard.
I agree. I signed up for the same tier and have seen my stats drop as well. They’ll tell you that it’s because you’re auditioning more – but I’m not. I consistently get a 30% shortlist rate on voices – and less than 1 in 8 on Voice123. That makes NO SENSE. Especially not over many many auditions. It is clear evidence that something is broken on v123
I’ll also add that my agents say I am consistently shortlisted as well. I’m also not auditioning for jobs I’m not a good fit for and don’t book consistently on. There is CLEARLY a lack of education to the voice buyer on v123 about the godlike importance of that blasted “like”. They think nothing of it. And it literally makes or breaks us.
They’ve become a shit-show. I used to be a diehard voice123 believer but once they changed things up it’s gone completely downhill. I have to ask people I audition for to ‘please like this ’cause it’ll help my blah blah ….’ and it always feels a little dirty.
What a shame!
Let’s find out what Rolf has to say about this.
Thanks Will, you’ve given me a lot to talk about!