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andy boyns’ new blog us up

<em>Male Voice Talent Andy Boyns</em>

Male Voice Talent Andy Boyns

….and while the blog is now listed on the blog roll, you can read it here.

Welcome to the blogosphere Andy.

moving day for voices.com

voicesdotcom_logo

If you’re a member of Voices.com it’s going to be a bit tougher to chat with folks there today because they are moving into their brand new headquarters. Congrats to Dave, Steph and the entire team.

Because of my negative opinion about the pay to play business model in voice over, I’ve been asked by some voices talents why I have spoken often in support of Voices.com. I have no trouble answering their questions – it has to do with the professional and personal respect I have for the Ciccarellis.

While I disagree with the business model overall – a model that is the foundation for Voices.com as a business, David, Stephanie and their team I believe are sincerely committed to helping their listed voice talents build their careers while simultaneously building the Voices.com business. I offer as my examples: the customer service I received when I briefly joined their service when it first started, their corporate openness through their use of a variety of social media tools and my numerous personal interactions with them. They are professional, they are respectable and their business practices as far as I have experienced are completely above board.

It is the model of their business (and those with whom they compete) that I find to be very problematic; briefly stated- pay-to-play voice over sites I believe undermine the quality of the voice over industry. So I don’t pay. It’s up to history to determine if my opinion is right or wrong – ultimately my opinion is only right for me. If one were so inclined to join a pay-to-play site, I would direct them to Voices.com first.

As an owner of many small businesses, a five year mark is an important historic milestone. To have been able to grow their business to a point where they are covering salaries, benefits, rent, etc. every month is a big deal. Being able to move and grow the Voices.com business into new space is pretty amazing as well. That benchmark needs to be recognized and appreciated for every business because it ain’t easy and it ain’t guaranteed for any of us.

congratulations to voice talent dan lenard

dan_lenard_voice_talent_web_site

I was heading off to bed when a last quick look at my email showed a note from my fellow Buffalo voice talent Dan Lenard who I haven’t heard from in a while.

Seems he’s been working with my friend (and his friend too I suppose) Nancy Wolfson from Braintracks Audio on some branding efforts for the web and he wanted to announce it to everyone.

I hope if you have a moment you’ll check out Dan and Nancy’s efforts.

voice talent paul strikwerda walks for MS – an amazing journey

Paul_Strikwerda_MS_walk

So I was looking at Paul Strikwerda’s blog earlier as he was participating in Mahmoud Taji’s blog post discussion when I saw the above graphic that caught my eye.

How nice, I thought, that Paul would offer his VO services if someone donated to his participation in the Multiple Sclerosis walk and how great he put it on his blog.

Then I read further and was even more impressed.

However, no one had seemed to donate yet. Well I fixed that and I hope you’ll add to the pot too if you can.

While it would be lovely I’m sure, I don’t need Paul to read anything for me so I hereby offer my read up as an “extra” for anyone who might want it.

Our voice over industry is almost as amazing as the journey it takes us on everyday.

taji’s voice emporium wants you to wish upon a star

taji_voice_emporium

Mahmoud Taji pinged me this morning about a blog post he wrote asking voice over talents to create a wish list that they would want to find in the perfect pay-to-play site (think Voices.com and Voice 123).

I posted my “thoughts” on the matter on his blog and I hope you’ll let him know yours as well.

your voice over business may owe the supreme court a thank you note

audioconnell_election_ballot3

This is a political post but not in a Democrat or Republican kind of way.

You may have seen in the news last week as an “also in the news” feature after the Haiti and NBC late night imbroglio, that the Supreme Court issued a ruling that loosened restrictions on corporate campaign spending.

As viewers and listeners, this means more political campaign ads – soft, hard and/or nasty – but upwards in some estimates of $300,000,000 more in political ad spending in the next political cycle.

Whether or not you like that as a citizen or politico matters less to me that what that ruling means to me as a voice over talent of political spots for radio and TV. If you wanted to, say, only cut me in for .5% of that total in voice over work – I’d probably consider it.

Some voice talents don’t like to do political spots and some, like me, study the client/candidate for their stand on one or two issues of high importance and if he/she doesn’t match up, you pass on the spot.

So if you’re of a mind to, you might want to dust off your political commercial voice over demo and maybe think about updating it if you haven’t in a while. It looks like it’s gong to get politically busy pretty soon.