Entries Tagged as 'voice over podcast'

a voice over year in review

voices.com_logo_all_rights_acknowledged

I was pinged this morning (and I think we all know painful that can be …ba-dum-bump) by David Ciccarelli who, with his wife Stephanie, own Voices.com. David asked if I would review, post and comment on his annual “Report on The Voice Over Industry 2009”.

OK then, a review with some general perspective and information upfront.

• While I am not a fan of the pay-for-play voice over model upon which Voices.com, Voice 123 and others have built their business, I have stated that if I were to choose one service of that ilk it would be Voices.com because even before I knew the Ciccarellis personally, the customer service and responsiveness their Voices.com offered me when I was an early member was better than any competitor.

• This is at least the second if not third year David has done this report and I give him great credit for seeing an opening for information sharing and promotion of his own business and going for it.

• I also give him credit for daring to ask the opinion of a loud mouth putz like me ‘cause he knows I pull no punches on industry issues or in reviews. He and I must ascribe to the same theory that some publicity is better than none at all.

• Over the years I have become friends with David and Stephanie and know them to be honest people whose opinions and talents I respect. Others in their business, not so much.

So enough preamble, on to the meat-

The 23 page report is more PowerPoint than e-book with each slide offering one or two nuggets of information ranging from various market overviews to drilldowns on pertinent business segments.

My likes:
• I like that David’s established an annual tome that summarizes the industry. It adds credibility to the business but to be taken seriously it needs some additional info (see dislikes).

• I have seen “state of the industry reports” or prognostications from Voices.com’s competitors and comparably this is the most credible and informative of all of them at this moment in time.

• Information like $4.05 for the ad word voice over on Google is good to know (a stupidly high price to pay when its competitors who do most of the clicking on such ads but let’s not kill the messenger here)

• I like the format for both conveying information and for its readability.

My dislikes:
• The content has only a few bits of information that I think are new or enlightening to the industry. To become a must read it has to reveal trends and statistics that offer more insight for voice talents and producers. That requires a great deal more research which this document does not have and it shows rather clearly.

• Some topics struck me as grossly self-serving: a report on Social Networks conveniently notes the growth of a Voice.com sponsored group on Facebook and the Time Spent Online chart had Voices.com’s site crushing Voice 123’s statistically and visually while also noting most industry players spend most of their time on Voices.com. This smacks a bit more like a sales presentation than a industry report.

• The salary statistics chart – probably the most important page for both talent and producers – had no quoted sources for the stated figures (which were much too broad) and was only one page (versus three pages on podcasting). This was a big miss.

• The Touch Graph tool wasn’t simplistic enough or easy enough to immediately digest key information (like a good graph should). As just one (possibly self-serving in keeping here with a developing theme) example this graph had the audio’connell web site listed on the web site graph on “voiceovers” and on the same graph an Oxford biography link to Peter O’Connell who I think is a professor or a Bishop but sure ain’t me (no, I do not believe there are any other Peter O’Connell voice overs but me). The graph was gimmicky and not informative.

In summary, I believe that this report reads more like a sophomore’s term paper rather than a senior thesis. What it can, should and I truly hope will be in the future is a report that has a lot more facts in it, much more pertinent data and more information to help talent and producers manage their businesses. It will take much more time and research from Voices.com to make this annual report a widely respected annual state of the industry. Today, the report is not yet there but there is a foundation of a good idea.

We need that “stuff” as well as the promise of what this report could someday be.

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Mark your calendars for September 1, 2008. You NEED to know this date.

Why?

BECAUSE that’s the date we will be changing this blog’s current RSS feed address exclusively to a Feed Burner subscription address.

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I just did it in about 15-20 seconds. And you’re probably more coordinated that I am so for you it won’t even take that long.

For the next 30 days, we’ll keep both subscriptions available but as of September 1st, subscription notices will ONLY GO TO FEEDBURNER SUBSCRIBERS.

We hope you’ll make the switch with us…we’d miss you terribly if you left. (*Oh, and there really isn’t any kind of savings in this for you, as the title suggests. That was just an ugly marketing ploy to draw you in.)

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voxmarketising – the audio’connell podcast [episode 102]

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[audio:http://audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/voxmarketing_episode102_012708.mp3]
Click here to download the episode!

â–º (0:00) Show Open: (Voxmarketising Episode #102/ Show date: January 27, 2008)

â–º (1:00) Welcome

â–º (2:40) Oversight (Stuff You Might Have Missed):
– The Challenge of Rebranding the United Negro College Fund to the UNCF

– The fontastic movie “Helvetica

– UK Voice Talent Bernard Shaw on Core Talents that People Need to Possess as Voice Over Artists

– Lost Voices: Suzanne Pleshette and Allan Melvin

â–º (10:07) VMT Interview (On voiceover or marketing or advertising or all of the above):
– Podcamp Toronto 2008 Information

– Podcamp Toronto 2008 Promo

– Interview with Podcamp Toronto 2008 Sponsor Chair Eden Spodek

â–º (19:36) Brain Spanking (Funny, Weird, Annoying News of the Day But Stuff That Usually Makes You Think):
– How to Improve Your Image By Not Delivering

– Connect Ventures Video (Lip Dub)

– The idea of a sneaker reimagined by Freedom of Creation

â–º (22:14) Popular Demand (Voice Comments, Emails and Blogs Posts from Listeners):
– Comments by Greg Phelps and Drew Hadwal

â–º (23:30) Show Close:
Comment Line – +01 716-989-6151
Email – peter at audioconnell dot com
Blog – www.voxmarketising.com (Subscribe)
Add us to your Linked In or Facebook

voxmarketising – the audio’connell podcast [episode 101]

voxmarketising - the audio’connell podcast logo/album art

[audio:http://audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/voxmarketing_episode101_011208.mp3]
Click here to download the episode!

â–º (0:00) Show Open: (Voxmarketising Episode #101/ Show date: January 12, 2008)

â–º (1:00) Welcome:

â–º (1:55) Oversight (Stuff You Might Have Missed):
Xerox has a new logo

– Cool logo sites You The Designer and Logo Pond

Voicey Awards (nominating VO-BB and Philip Banks for Best Team Performance

Podcamp Toronto 2008 and the audio’connell Voice Over Talent promo featuring the voice talents of Jeff Kafer, Elaine Singer, Chris Rice, Mary McKitrick, Kara Edwards, Liz de Nesnera, Dave Courvoisier and Jim Sutton

â–º (10:36) VMT Interview (On voiceover or marketing or advertising or all of the above):
– Winners of the Unofficial NBC Nightly News Voice Off including winning entries and interviews with the third place finisher, the second place finisher and the winner.

â–º (25:18) Brain Spanking(Funny, Weird, Annoying News of the Day But Stuff That Usually Makes You Think):
– Quick observations on the current Writer’s Strike

â–º (26:50) Popular Demand (Voice Comments, Emails and Blogs Posts from Listeners):
– Summary comments on the Unofficial NBC Nightly News Voice Off

â–º (27:40) Show Close:
Comment Line – +01 716-989-6151
Email – peter at audioconnell dot com
Blog – audioconnell.com/blog (Subscribe)
Add us to your Linked In or Facebook

voxmarketising – the audio’connell podcast [episode 100]

voxmarketising - the audio’connell podcast logo/album art

[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/voxmarketising/voxmarketing_episode100_102507.mp3]

Click here to download the episode!

â–º (0:00) Show Open: (Voxmarketising Episode #100/ Show date: October 25, 2007)

â–º (1:00) Welcome:

â–º (1:55) Oversight (Stuff You Might Have Missed):
Podcamp Boston 2- http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/PodCampBoston2

Voice Talent In Trouble- Will Lyman’s narration work for the Internet Innovation Alliance ticks off PBS and WGBH http://broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6487874.html

A Younger You: Voices.com looks for early recordings from today’s voice talents
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2007/10/old_audio_recordings.html

Voice Over Marketing- Review pending regarding Voices.com’s new book “Internet Marketing Plan for Voice Actors”.

New Gadgets- The very new AT&T Tilt instead of the i-Phone

A New Kind of Press Release- Social Media News Releases

How Business Reacts to Social Media- Mitch Joel’s link to a report from McKinsey & Company http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/mckinsey-reports-on-how-businesses-understand-social-media-and-web-20/
Sad Spirit Robert Gorell at Grokdotcom on how bad Spirit Airlines customer service has become. http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/10/24/spirit-air-you-dont-have-to-turn-on-the-red-light/

A new Holiday: Holiday Inn gets a $1 billion makeover from logos to mattresses and everything in between

â–º (10:22)VMT Interview (On voiceover or marketing or advertising or all of the above):
Steve Chazin, Marketing Apple, on the turning tide of the i-Phone

â–º (19:22) Popular Demand (Voice Comments, Emails and Blogs Posts from Listeners):
Voting on the voxmarketising podcast slogan with advice from Leesa Barnes http://www.leesabarnes.com/developing-your-unique-podcast-message/

â–º (21:04) Show Close:
Comment Line – +01 716-989-6151
Email – peter at audioconnell dot com
Blog – audioconnell.com/blog (Subscribe)
Add us to your Linked In or Facebook

voxmarketising fixed

voxmarketising - the audio’connell podcast logo/album art

As a highly paid audio engineer might say (do such people exists, by the way?) the “technical snafu” encountered in recent downloads of the 100th episode of voxmarketising – the audio’connell podcast have been remedied.

We apologize for the inconvenience and please rest assured that we have shot (BANG!) the internet audio gnome that caused the problem in the first place.

You can listen to it here.