What is a watermark?

A watermark is essentially a snippet of sound used to protect custom voice recordings in an audition situation or when asked directly to record a custom sample of a script.

It could be a recorded beep, bell, tone, really whatever you want it to be, so long as it briefly overlaps with your voice (in the middle of a word, name, etc.) when presenting a custom sample of your voice.

Why do you need one?

Talent are strongly encouraged to use watermarks to protect their voice samples from theft or misuse. Because it is very easy to lift audio or edit out various parts of a file, you need to protect your work and strategically place watermarks throughout your recording(s).

To quote a conversation at VoiceOverTimes, this is how David Houston uses watermarks:

If I decide to add a watermark, I just use a 0.5 second, 1kHz tone placed every few seconds.

A music bed (at a low level) is another option; just make sure you note in your proposal that the audition has, in fact, been watermarked.

Where can you get one?

You can download some watermarks (a.k.a. sound logos) here at Voices.com.

What's even more exciting is that we are currently developing a bank of tried, tested, and true watermarks used by your colleagues in the audio biz. This collection will be a communal bank of royalty-free watermarks, absolutely safe and free for you to use to protect your work.

We'll compile the page and include the files, descriptions of the watermarks, and directions on how they can best be used.

To submit your watermark and tips on how to use it, send me an email, including your MP3 watermark.

Cheers,

Stephanie

P.S. If you have a blog, blog about this! The more people we get involved in this effort, the better it will be :)