Buzz

Earlier this year, I had a client that heard about Voices.com via a search for voiceovers on the Net.

They went through and listened to a variety of voices on the Voices.com site and then offered me an opportunity to read an audition of their product. I did, they approved and I am now on retainer as the national spokesperson VO for Thomasville Furniture.

Thank you Voices.com!

Johnny George
Johnny George Communications

Last week I locked in my price with you for next year, and THIS week I got a call from an agency in Los Angeles to do a CAPITAL ONE project... guess I should have locked in my price earlier, huh? This was my 1st ever job through you and it was a good one.

THANK YOU,

David Brower
Voice Actor

Graydon Smith of Redhead Media Solutions agreed to answer a few questions about his experience at Voices.com and how he used the service to find, select and hire talent. Recently Graydon completed a couple of projects at Voices.com and most recently hired Tom Pagnotti. Read more on his hiring experience.

How has Voices.com helped you with your project needs?

Being fairly new to the production industry, I didn’t have any names in mind when looking for a voice that would fit with my client and the script; however, the level of quality responses I received upon posting the job was phenomenal.

Our clients are looking for more than generic demos, they want custom reads and almost every talent at Voices.com gives you one right out of the gate. For us, it makes it easy to prep a rough cut for the client that allows them to make a sound (pardon the pun) decision on who they want to move forward with, and there are no surprises.

Having used Voices.com exclusively for our talent, I can’t say we’ve ever suffered from too few responses for our projects.

How did you select the talent?

I had so many great voices to choose from the client could not believe my company hadn’t been in the business for years due to the quality we voices we could deliver. I also made a list of favorites for next time to keep track of the truly exceptional voices I want to remember

What challenges did you face using the Voices.com system to find talent?

The script was a 30 second radio spot for an insurance company, and the voice needed to emote and connect with the audience right away to create many mental images of happy times and security.

We had well over 100 responses, many of them exactly what we were looking for but then the client had some other issues to deal with, and the deadlines for the spot fell to the backburner. 3 months later, with the client back on board the talent we selected was as keen and ready to go as if there’d been no delay at all.

To top it off, the Surepay system worked flawlessly, and suddenly after such a long delay, within 24 hours everything was completed perfectly.

How would you describe your overall experience with the site?

I couldn’t ask for a better outcome on this project. The client, the talent (Tom Pagnotti) and Redhead Media Solutions all benefited from a streamlined, easy process. In fact, it was so successful from the client perspective that they immediately wanted to produce anther spot with a female voice for their sister company knowing that they’ll get a level of talent that will impress them, and their clients. They’ve become believers in using professional voice talent from http://www.voices.com, and won’t be going back to the “free local radio station spots” ever again.

About the Client

Redhead Media Solutions Inc. specializes in marketing and communications consulting for small and medium sized businesses, along with an in-house creative department handling all types of audio and graphic based creative. From creating full campaigns, to one-offs, or guiding an internal strategic planning exercise, we help businesses achieve their goals.

Project Details

Project ID: 7228
Project Title: Shier’s Insurance
Category: Radio Commercials
Language: English (North American)
Project Close Date: December 14, 2008
Selected Talent: Tom Pagnotti

Ron Hancock of the Rock Remembered radio show agreed to answer a few questions about his experience at Voices.com and how he used the service to find, select and hire talent. Recently he completed a couple of projects at Voices.com and hired Alex O’Neal and Jennifer Johnsey. Read more on his Voices.com hiring experience.

How has Voices.com helped you with your project needs?

I have a local weekly oldies radio show in Shreveport, Louisiana and was starting the process of syndication to a number of other radio stations through a distribution company. The show, Rock Remembered™ is my own project and I wanted voice talent separate from the local oldies station to insure no one could claim any partial ownership in the program.

So far, I was a stand-alone outfit. I did the research. I did the voice. I did the taping. I procured the music. I did the mixing. I did the distribution.

While surfing I found Voices.com. I opened an account, which was very easy, and posted a job explaining that I was looking for an announcer, gave a few sample lines, logged off, and forgot about it.

Bingo! The next day my email told me I had a number of responses. Within just a few days I had 87 auditions to deal with.

How did you select the talents?

I listened to each and every audition and had a female at work listen as well. We compared short lists, and then had a third person listen to the remaining possibilities.

With their input, I settled on Alex O’Neal. He has a great announcer voice. You can hear him doing my opener on www.rockremembered.com.

Alex and I emailed back and forth. I sent him audio samples of the show and episode scripts to give him a feel for what I was trying to accomplish. Alex was extremely helpful, offered advice, and quick to get the completed product to me.

As the show grows I intend on using Alex again.

I was so pleased with Alex that I wrote a female character name Olga into the radio show.

For “Olga” I had 47 auditions! Jennifer Johnsey got that job. Like Alex, Jennifer was perfect… actually Jennifer was “Olga.”

What challenges did you face using the Voices.com system to find talent?

I only wish there was a way I could give a blanket thanks to everyone who auditioned! There were many of them I would have liked to use.

I have to be honest, between Alex O’Neal and Jennifer Johnsey, I had 134 auditions to listen to and I listened to each and every one of them, however; so many people (the majority) made personal recordings of my script, that I did not seriously give much consideration to “canned auditions.”

Budget was important. Tie base went the lower price. Jennifer Johnsey intrigued me with a very low bid. Her bid was so low and her voice so good, her audition stayed on my mind. It was only at the last minute, when I finally talked to her on the phone that I decided to pay her twice as much as she had asked for. That’s something for a budgeted-tightwad like me.

How would you describe your overall experience with the site?

I liked being able to pay with PayPal and the Voices.com SurePay system utilizes this billing method. It is very convenient.

I also was assigned my own account manager at Voices.com, from whom I heard from as soon as I created an account. That was comforting, but I found Voices.com so easy to use, I have been able to handle all my needs pretty much without assistance.

I had previously tried a couple of other websites, but now Voices.com is in My Favorites and will be used again.

About the Client

Ron Hancock’s Rock Remembered™ is a local weekly oldies radio show in Shreveport, Louisiana which is currently in the process of syndication to a number of other radio stations through a distribution company. You can listen to Rock Remembered every Friday evening at 6 p.m. (Central Time)
on Oldies 95.7 FM or with live feed on www.klkl.fm.

Project Details

Project ID: 7810
Project Title: Rock Remembered Radio Package
Category: Radio Imaging and Station Identification
Language: English (North American)
Project Close Date: February 11, 2008
Selected Talent: Alex O'Neal

Project ID: 7899
Project Title: Olga - Rock Remembered Transition Voice
Language: English (North American)
Category: Character Voices and Cartoon Voice Actors
Project Close Date: February 22, 2008
Selected Talent: Jennifer Johnsey

Dear Laurynda,

I just wanted to thank you for Voices.com's wonderfully helpful service. I had no idea this site existed until someone pointed the website out to me, and now I only wish I knew about it earlier. I had 94 responses within 24 hours of my posting, so, if anything, the website works too well!

One of the respondents wrote that they could not believe that we needed to find someone to do a voice over in LA since there should be plenty to choose from. To that I would respond that while there might be tons of local people here who could and would help us, finding them is a whole other challenge. That is where your service helps no matter where you are from.

We ended up working with Craig Burnett who we found via Voices.com

Thank you,

Shelley Ginsburg
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles
__________________________________________________________
Are you looking for a voice actor to bring your message to the world?
Post a job at Voices.com and you'll have many voices to choose from!

Beth Sowell of Episode XI Studios agreed to answer a few questions about her experience at Voices.com and how she and her company have used the service to find, select and hire talent. Recently she completed a project at Voices.com and hired Dan Dunlap. Read more on her experience.

How has Voices.com helped you with your project needs and how did you select the talent?

There are so many talents listed that it’s often difficult to narrow down who you’d like to contact, so we always send out a general listing and listen to the auditions that we receive. We try to be as specific as we can in the job posting details on what we’re looking for so that the voiceover talent will know whether or not they are matched for the job before they respond.

What challenges did you face using the Voices.com system to find talent?

For this project we wanted that stereotypical deep, male, movie trailer-type voice. The clip was for a 45 second video that would show like a movie preview. We were using the video at an evening cocktail party/networking group event. The event was being held to introduce a new online networking group locally called Synergy Street.

We never have any problems getting plenty of auditions and responses to our postings, and this one was no different. We found the perfect voice, and offered him the job, paid the deposit via SurePay and received our finished files all on the same day. The whole procedure is easy to follow, and speedy!

The Loft Presentation was one of the few videos that we’ve done that actually wasn’t on a very tight deadline. But if it had been, we would have had absolutely no complaints because we got the voiceover file within 45 minutes of ordering it.

How did Voices.com help you achieve your goals in hiring?

Honestly, we use voices.com exclusively for voiceover work for every job. We’ve always had good luck with the talent listed, and every job has been a success.

We got LOTS of audition responses very quickly and most of them were a custom demo for this project so that we would knew exactly how it would turn out and we knew that Dan was the perfect voice for the job. There were absolutely no problems with the transaction; it was perfectly smooth and super speedy as usual.

Click here to see a sample of the finished project

How would you describe your overall experience with the site?

We LOVED the voiceover we got from Dan, he was perfect for the project and he was our first and only choice. Of course, we will use Voices.com again, as we always do. If a project fits Dan’s voice in the future, we will absolutely hire him again. Whenever we meet with customers we tell them where we get our voiceover talents.

About the Client

Episode XI Studios LLC is a full service, turn-key professional video production company. We do projects for web distribution, DVD distribution as well as commercials and special events. Our company website is www.episodexistudios.com.

Project Details

Project ID: 7888
Project Title: Loft Presentation
Category: Business Presentations and Corporate Videos
Language: English (North American)
Project Close Date: February 23, 2008
Selected Talent: Dan Dunlap

David & Laurynda

I wanted to thank you both for helping me come to a smart business decision. I am going to be EXCLUSIVELY with you!

Well, kind of....I still have an agent and various studios with whom I correspond for business.

Sincerely, there is no comparison between you and other online marketplaces. You have been so supportive, attentive, courteous and helpful. The voice seekers are far superior . But most importantly, I make money via your site!

Thanks again for all you do!!

Best wishes....your loyal member,

~ James Herron
Professional Voice Actor

Hello,

I have discovered that when reviewing Voices.com business history, I overlooked 1 ongoing client which I got thru Voices. I also wonder if there were others too?

Therefore I have subscribed for one more year.

On review, my criticism of your site was harsh. That is due to the oddballs who have contacted me through you and my poor batting average with Voices.com. compared with other websites and my agents. It just didn't add up.

I was flabbergasted that I could not justify $199! Well, I discovered at least one client won through Voices.com and I have earned thousands as a result. So - it is a no brainier to re-up.

Business is business after all.

Please accept my apologies, and note I have always appreciated your customer service and web design.

Cheers,

Leif Anders
Professional Voice Actor

Hi Stephanie and Voices.com crew,

I just wanted to tell you what a great presentation David put on at today's e-seminar through the London Small Business Centre.

David was very professional and informative. It was also good to see how a successful company like Voices.com is benefiting striving voiceover artists like myself in other ways!

The seminar as a whole was invaluable information to me and worth every penny.

It was a pleasure meeting David in person finally.

Here's to a prosperous future!

Cheers!

Blair Wilson
Preferred Member
http://blair2air.voices.com

Thanks David and Laurynda for the assistance you provided for my Mac PC.

I was so dissatisfied with another online service that I not only let my subscription lapse, but cancelled off that site completely. Conversely, although I still haven't gotten a gig yet at Voices.com. (I am confident it will happen soon), you and your staff always go 110% out of the way to help and service.

And, Voices.com; remains positive, uplifting, doesn't give me a feeling that I'm not good enough, or set rules that can't be understood, or rate me on a computer system that cannot be understood, doesn't threaten in any way, doesn't ask twice if I really want to submit an audition (really), and always provides me auditions in all budget ranges that I request.

In short, Voices.com provides a business environment with sensitivity to the artist. I like that.

Noel Gibilaro
Voice Over Talent

Welcome to the World Wide Computer.

By working through the "cloud," companies can save thousands of dollars in costs by making their IT departments redundant, scaling down energy costs by cutting back on hardware purchases and "renting" software on a monthly basis without the need to upgrade of acquire additional licences. Already, a bevy of applications including accounting suites, sales and inventory management programs, word processors as well as customized enterprise-class software packages are available for business owners.

Voices.com, a voice-over management company, utilizes Salesforce.com's content management software (kind of a Microsoft Outlook on steroids) and has quickly become the backbone of its business, says chief executive David Ciccarelli.

"We're a small team with less than a dozen employees. Our business generates revenues on a subscription basis and in order to forecost our earnings, we get reports in real-time which is extremely powerful," he said.

Before deciding to use Salesforce's software, Mr. Ciccarelli says Voices.com was looking at a piece of software that would have cost about $1-million to implement. "Not only was that out of the question, but we would have to hire an IT team to be around all the time to troubleshoot problems and deal with upgrades," he said.

"With Salesforce, it's in the realm of $10,000 a year, including any customization. It's really mind-blowing."

David George-Cosh
Technology Writer
Financial Post

It was a RED LETTER DAY here at Silver Tongued Angels. We got our first job on VOICES.COM. We have worked hard, taken advice from your staff and it really feels good.

My hat's off to all the good people at Voices.com. You have provided blogs, newsletters, books, articles and even personalized help. When I really needed help, you folks took a look at my information and my profile and made a few KEY suggestions.

Well it made all the difference. Our first job was not a trailer for the next "Terminator" film so Don will sleep well tonight....but it was a great Narration job for us that fits my Voice to a "T".

Thanks for everything....I am so stoked!!!

David Rodwell
Silver Tongued Angels

I got the gig!

I've been hired by an innovative team in Ireland that is creating a website for travelers to check out what's hot in various cities in the US (so far). I am in NYC, but being across the big pond hardly matters!

Thank you Voices.com!

Debbie Irwin

Artist in Resonance
http://www.debbieirwin.com