The Biz

Geoffrey Resnick, a professional voice-over talent, recently asked if I was aware of any USB or Firewire digital audio interfaces that were compatible with Vista or supported by Microsoft. Since my initial research didn't yield any positive results, I asked Geoffrey if he wouldn't mind if I posted his question on the blog.

In his own words, Geoffrey asks:

"Since Windows Vista is so new on the market, I've been having some difficulty finding a USB or Firewire interface for my computer that is Vista compatible. I'm wondering if you guys have any idea when they are releasing updated drivers for Vista. I have the recording software, finally! Just to let you know and for anybody else that has Vista, it's Sound Forge 9."

He also notes that during his own research on the latest launching of Microsoft Visa and audio interfaces, "it appears that every retail store has Windows Vista on every computer, which basically means that XP and others ( Microsoft operating systems ) will most likely be obsolete in the near future."

Have you had any experience with Microsoft Vista and your home recording studio?

Help Geoffrey by adding your comments below.

Popular web-based music services and some traditional radio stations that offer Internet audio streams are set to shut off their online programming until midnight tonight to protest the outrageous rates recently set by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C.

The Plan

Organizers are calling it Day of Silence and are hoping it will focus attention on a royalty-fee increase that many Internet-based broadcasters say could drive them out of business. The new rates are will go into effect July 15, unless the US Congress makes some radical changes to the legislation.

Forcing an Industry into Bankruptcy

The BBC reports that the new legislation "could cost webcasters around $1Billion in additional administration fees, protesters claim".

The increases could represent a 300% rise in current payments and the plan is to eventually charge royalties every time an online listener hears a song.

The Players

The new rates were set by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C.

In the BBC report, Kim Roberts Hedgpeth of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) said the new payments rewarded the "creativity, talent and hard work" of musicians.

Participants in the event include such online-only music services as Pandora, Live365 and Real Networks' Rhapsody, as well as radio stations such as WAMU in Washington and KCRW, based in Santa Monica, Calif. One notable service sitting out the protest, according to organizers, is AOL Radio.

As we share last week, the VoiceCoaches Marketing Expo was an overwhelming success. If you weren't at the Expo, here was our presentation, available for you as a PDF download.

Voice Over in the Google Era

The ways of the past are no barrier to success for savvy voice over entrepreneurs of the new Google Era. The search giant has brought more to our fingertips than any other web portal on the Internet, corralling relevant websites and taming the Wild West of the World Wide Web.

There Has Never Been a Better Time

Free career resources and advice is available, job opportunities are bountiful, and the costs associated with getting started and building a home recording studio are at the lowest they have ever been thanks to online marketplaces and the global village.

Broadcasters from the old school of presenting are using their highly developed instincts and production skills to land jobs from other radio and television stations around the world. Singers and stage actors from the theatre are exercising their vocal versatility, performing as voice actors in animation, film, and documentary narration as well as producing music beds and jingles for commercials.

Salespeople, former telephone marketers, and educators with great voices are flexing their persuasive musculature in commercials, telephony, and educational voice overs with the gusto and ambition of jockeys at the gate, waiting to unleash their voices on the world.

These are just some of the people who make up the voice industry. This guide will help you succeed in the Google Era, one Google service at a time.

Google Web Search

What is it?
Google Search is the largest search engine on the Internet. Google has indexed billions of web pages and organized the results in a pecking order of which sources are deemed most relevant or popular by other people who link to websites.

What does it do for me?
Google Search can act as a gateway for thousands of visitors to find your website and learn more about your services. Ranking high in the search engine, particularly for your name, is very important.

How can you use it to the fullest?
Optimize for keywords and be sure to update your website often. Build links to your website and add valuable content that the search engines will index to generate more pages in their engine related to your website.

URL: http://www.google.com

Google Image Search

What is it?
Google Image Search provides people looking for images with literally billions of images indexed by their search engine, available for viewing. To use Image Search, select the "images" tab or visit http://images.google.com. You can enter a query in the image search box, then click on the "Search" button. If you’d like to see a larger image, click the thumbnail on the results page to see a larger version of the image, as well as the web page on which the image is located.

What does it do for me?
Google analyzes the text on the page adjacent to the image, the image caption and dozens of other factors to determine the image content. Google also uses sophisticated algorithms to remove duplicates and ensure that the highest quality images are presented first in your results. If you properly tag your images, you will rank higher for specific keywords.

How can you use it to the fullest?
Name your images appropriately and be sure to use descriptive keywords that indicate what your image is of.

URL: http://images.google.com

Google News Search

What is it?
Google News picks up press releases and news from approved sources to distribute in their search engine. The News Search is an excellent tool for keeping up to date on what a competitor is up to or on topics that interest you.

What does it do for you?
Google News can spread your message to journalists and bloggers who are looking for fresh content to publish on their websites or via traditional publications such as newspapers, magazines, and journals. Being found in Google News also helps others to learn about you and provides you with more links in their search engine.

How can you use it to the fullest?
Be sure to update your content regularly and distribute a press release announcing any news about your voice over business or achievements. Going through online press release distribution websites that are recognized as news sources by Google will dramatically increase your visibility and get you in front of people who will cover your story.

URL: http://news.google.com

Google Blog Search

What is it?
Google Blog Search is a special search engine where you can find content of interest posted on blogs. The Blog Search features content updated on a minute by minute basis published to the web by bloggers and article writers as well as citizen reporters.

What does it do for you?
Google Blog Search enables you to sort results in order of freshness, relevancy, or posts dated within certain periods of time.

How can you use it to the fullest?
Google favors fresh content. Update your blog regularly, contribute to other blogs by leaving comments and tag your posts to increase the likelihood of being found in the search engine.

URL: http://blogsearch.google.com

Google Video

What is it?
The world's first open online video marketplace, where you can search for, watch and even buy an ever-growing collection of TV shows, movies, music videos, documentaries, personal productions and more.

What does it do for you?
Google Video can be used to find videos that you may have produced and circulated on the Internet. In order to be included in Google Video, it is wise to upload your video through the Google Video system for inclusion.

How can you use it to the fullest?
Upload any video samples that you may have (and also have permission to circulate) that feature you or your vocal talents. This may be commercials that you have provided a voice over to, video presentations, and video blogs. Be sure to optimize with appropriate tags and keywords for best results as well as submit to be included.

URL: http://video.google.com

Google Directory

What is it?
Google Directory is the Open Directory Project also known as DMOZ, the largest human-edited directory on the web.

What does it do for you?
Google Directory provides you with a free directory listing not only in the Google Directory but hundreds of other directories that are fed by the Google Directory.

How can you use it to the fullest?
You can navigate to a specific category for male or female voice talent and add yourself to the list for inclusion. Be patient as the approval process can take up to six months.

URL: http://www.google.ca/dirhp?hl=en

Google AdWords

What is it?
Google AdWords is a quick and simple way to advertise on Google, regardless of your budget. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results on Google, as well as on search and content sites in the growing Google Network, including AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, & Blogger. With searches on Google and page views on the Google Network each day, your Google AdWords ads reach a vast audience.

What does it do for you?
Google AdWords directs traffic to your website on a pay-per-click basis, ensuring that you are visible in the search results as sponsored listings as well as giving you the tools to maintain and track your AdWords campaigns on a regular basis.

How can you use it to the fullest?
Always stick to your budget and restrict the amount of time and number of locations your advertisements are being served.

URL: https://adwords.google.com/support/

Google AdSense

What is it?
Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, unobtrusive Google ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on your site, you'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages. It's also a way for web site publishers to provide Google search to their site users, and to earn money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages.

What does it do for you?
You can earn extra money for hosting pay-per-click ads from Google advertisers on your website.

How can you use it to the fullest?
Optimize your website so that the advertisers that are selected to advertise on your website are related to the core theme of your website. Maintaining higher levels of traffic on your website will also bring in more revenue via those streams.

URL: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/

Google Analytics

What is it?
Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience. Improve your website return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web.

What does it do for you?
With over 80 reports, your free Google Analytics account will track visitors through your site, and will keep track of the performance of your marketing campaigns - whether they're AdWords campaigns, email campaigns, or any other advertising program.

How can you use it to the fullest?
With this information, you'll know which keywords are really working, which ad text is the most effective, and where your visitors are dropping off during the conversion process. Don't be fooled by the fact that this functionality is available to you for free - Google Analytics is a full-featured, powerful analytics package.

URL: http://www.google.com/support/analytics

Key Points to Remember

Now that you’ve learned more about Google and the many ways that you can use their services to your advantage, it’s time to start putting some time and effort into making Google work for you!

Wishing you all the best on your Google adventure.

Take a listen to Apple’s commercials for its new iPhone and see if you can pick out which celebrity from hit TV show The Office is providing the voice-over.

For those who are just learning about the much-hyped Apple product, the iPhone combines three amazing products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device.

Last week Apple began running a series of new television commercials to help educate the mainstream.

The crew at OfficeTally.com posted that John Krasinski is the new voice of Apple.

As mentioned in the comments at Gravitational Pull, this isn’t the first time that there’s been an "Apple/The Office crossover". The Office is often featured in Apple product demonstrations including the unveiling of the Apple iPhone earlier this year. Marc notes that "The Office is the most downloaded show through iTunes."

As a nice side effect, the TV ads have really kicked the Apple buzz machine into high gear. The Apple iPhone is set to launch on June 29.

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris - © WireImage.com - Image courtesy WireImage.com

Just when Google may have thought they had mass radio ad liquidation in the bag, eBay has entered the fray with a competing service of their own.

Learn more about what the implications may be for Google Audio Ads with the introduction of powerhouse eBay and their brand new remnant radio air time marketplace.

Earlier this year, it seemed like everyone was talking about Google Audio Ads, and to a degree, many people still are.

However...

Enter eBay, a veteran in the field of business to business and e-commerce, with the newest addition to the eBay fold, the eBay Media Marketplace, putting a new spin on their auction formula to include bidding for remnant air time on broadcast radio stations.

That's fine and all, but other than the fact that Google has just released their service to customers and prospects alike and eBay's is in development, just how do these two services differ?

The Google Audio Ads platform is reliant on recruiting professional audio producers through their Creative Ad Marketplace whereas eBay has recently established a partnership with Bid4Spots, a remnant air time service provider, who already has connections to voice over and audio producers through their affiliation with Voices.com.

Recently, CEO Dave Newmark of Bid4Spots gave an interview with Mediaweek.com and shared the following insight:

“This deal it intended to pump a lot more advertising dollars into our system,” said Dave Newmark, chairman and CEO of Bid4Spots, who founded the company two years ago. About 230 agencies and 2,000 direct advertisers have used Bid4Spots, usually to supplement buys and bulk up rating points, Newmark said. He continued “Ad agencies should study all three approaches carefully because they do different things,” Newmark said. “Our model is you get a lot and pay very little for it.”

What do you think of eBay's imminent entrance on the scene?

Do they have what it takes to compete with Google?

Looking forward to your comments,

David

Image © eBay.com

Many of you know that I graduated from the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology, the "Harvard of Audio Engineering".

Recently, I had the good fortune of sharing of being invited back to share about the life of an entrepreneur, how OIART played a part in the development of my career and naturally what is happening at Voices.com these days.

OIART is a technology focused education for those people with the sole desire and passion to gain the skills and knowledge to succeed in the field of audio recording.

Over the past several years, I've had the opportunity to share about how I've applied what I learned at OIART, the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology.

OIART doesn't just provide audio engineering education -- they immerse students in the art and science of music production and sound recording technologies, nurturing their passion for audio while truly preparing them to meet the demands of the audio production industry.

For this session, we talked about entrepreneurship, the Internet and how businesses from around the world are hiring professional voice over talents at Voices.com. We also discussed how voice talent get paid and I welcomed the chance to introduce our new SurePay Escrow service.

The presentation was well received and recorded as a podcast that will be available for download in the coming weeks.

If you're interested in audio recording or learning more about how to become an audio recording engineer, check out OIART.

David

Image © OIART.org