Over the years a good many well-meaning (and not-so-well meaning) enterprises have tried to capitalize on the community of voice actors.
Many are still trying. Few are legitimate.
- voicechasers
- VoiceOverDirectory
- voice jockey
- voice bunny
- voiceperminute
- voiceover-jobs
- audiofreelances
- voice-changer
- VoiceCharger
- VO Pavilion
- VO Career
- VoiceoverAlligator
- VoiceMonkey
- VoiceOverScorpion
OK, one of those last three are made-up. But the point is…how many of them are still around?…or how many have you heard of? VoiceBunny maybe. And of the 3 best known that I didn’t mention: Voices.com, Voice123, and Bodalgo…which do you really trust to contribute significantly to your bottom line?
The other day I got an email asking me to re-up for VO Planet. Yeah, them again. Whatever happened to Donna Summers? Well, apparently she got bought out. There’s a new guy in charge, and they’re looking for people to sign up.
I wrote back to ask about the current ownership, and got a nice response. Apparently voicecasting.com agency is still part of VO Planet, and that’s the part that always confused me. I’m hoping to get an interview with the new owner so I can share some answers, but so far, he hasn’t granted me permission to share. I’m looking forward to hearing how HE plans to balance the fine line between VO Planet, and the Voicecasting agency. The way Donna did it never made sense.
Bottom line: approach these different online casting, aggregation, and clearinghouse sites with extreme caution. At worst (VoiceRealm), they’ll use your profile on something like CheapVoiceOvers.com (yes, they did), and at best, you’ll waste a lot of time filling out your profile and uploading demos, then never hear a thing back.
If you are a WoVO member, we have our own online directory of vetted voice actors called VoiceOver.biz, and we’d love to see you there. People ARE getting jobs.
CourVO
