Some might say Alex Torrenegra is a genius.
There are certainly many arguments in his favor. He’s got incredible entrepreneurial, innovation, and savvy business skills. He knows how to create and perpetuate a very profitable online product. He certainly has brought a sea-change to the world of voiceovers, and many predicted the demise of Voice123.com well before its current 10-year anniversary.
- Talent agencies have cursed the site but now quietly use it.
- Voice Talent get jobs, get paid, and get legitimacy on the listings, although many criticize the cattle-call “dumbing-down” of the marketplace it prompts.
- Voice-seekers (a term virtually invented by this turn in the business) love it. Their listings get oodles of responses, and they go to one place for their many projects.
Voice123 became an immediate lightning rod with it’s creative new business model. If Alex didn’t do it, someone else would have…and did. Torrenegra capitalized on the new frontier of online immediacy to build something ripe for the picking. The fact that it’s still running, and running strong 10 years later, deserves credit…’cause Lord knows, along the way there has been plenty of criticism.
V123 has spawned innumerable copycat pay-to-play sites (affectionately known among the voice-acting rabble as “P2P” sites). Only Voices.com reaches the level of a peer/challenger to the clearinghouse Torrenegra has built. Ya gotta give it to him (and the Ciccarelli’s).
Over the years, I’ve been close enough to V123’s dealings, and the people who work there to have formed my own opinion about how much Mr. Torrenegra cares about the population of actors and talent-seekers who have made him rich. On this occasion of his 10th anniversary, I’ll spare him the editorial feedback and character analysis.
So here’s to Voice123.com: a prototype and a plodding juggernaut…a catalyst and a cauldron of controversy….a burgeoning marketplace and a blundering bull in a rate/scale china shop.
Happy 10th Voice123.com!!!
Below is the infographic V123 has released on the occasion of their anniversary (double click on the graphic for a better look). It came with this message from Torrenegra:
Thanks to you, Voice123 is celebrating our 10th birthday this month! When we started Voice123 out of our Queens, New York apartment in 2003, we had no idea it would grow to be the largest voice over casting website on the planet with over 120,000 projects posted from companies like Pixar, MTV, and Warner Brothers. We recently surveyed all Voice123 members to find the heart of our success and to plan for future improvements. Check out some of the cool discoveries we made in our “10 years of voiceover” infographic!
CourVO
