How Voices.com Works
Voices.com is one of the top two pay-to-play websites on the whole of the internet. So when and/or if you decide to throw your hat in the ring, how does it work? What are the best practices to set yourself up for success that’s both quick and sustainable?
I’m going to lay all of that out for you right now.
Before we dive in, all of my insights here are founded on my own experience and the materials that Voices provides to the talent on their site to help further their success. I am not personally affiliated with Voices from an administrative perspective.
Pay-to-Play
Voices.com, being a pay-to-play site, asks its talent to pay an upfront ‘membership’ fee of $499 per year. In exchange for that entry fee, you are given a profile on the site and access to all of the jobs that flow through their doors on a weekly basis.
In addition to the annual fee, Voices asks for a 20% commission from every job you book on the site. In exchange for this the team at Voices and the site in general both act as a liaison between you, the talent, and the clients you work with as well as provide a number of services, including:
Contract Negotiation and Arbitration
Escrow Service
Payment Processing
Work Protections
Now when you’re a VoiceOver artist, I’d say maybe 90% of the time it’s all up to you. You’re the talent, audio engineer, business manager, accounting department, customer service—it can be exhausting at times, and not only that but on the off chance that something goes sideways (i.e. a client doesn't pay you, a job is difficult, you’re put in a compromising position) all of that falls on YOU.
All to say, for my money, investing that 20% commission fee for some peace of mind is a real boon when you’re a one-person show.
How does Voices.com send me jobs?
Every job you’re sent through the site is matched to you based on their algorithm, which they’ve dubbed “VoiceMatch.”
How well you match with any given job that a prospective client uploads to the site is determined by the demos you have uploaded to your profile, and how you’ve tagged and categorized them.
Say Microsoft comes to the site and needs narration for a product launch. They click the category “Video Narration.” I’ve got a demo for that on my profile, so my VoiceMatch score goes up. Microsoft then clicks “North American Accent.” Again, my VoiceMatch score goes up. Then they choose their style, “Confident,” “Authentic,” and “Friendly.” Boom, my score goes up even more. Voices.com sees all of this and decides to plop this job into my inbox, allowing me to audition for it if I wish.
Best Practices for Uploading Demos
There are no rules with your demos as long as they represent you, your talents, and your audio quality well. However, here are some guidelines that can be helpful as you’re getting started, and as you continue building out your catalog.
Aim for 15-30 seconds long
Most clients will likely only listen to ~5 seconds of any given demo
Diversify as best you can
If you find yourself using the same tags and categories over and over, mix it up! This will help get you access to more potential jobs.
Update as you grow
As you progress through your career, you’ll get better! It’s inevitable. Your demos should reflect that, so every now and then comb back through and consider adding new demos that showcase you NOW—and maybe think about ditching those 3-year-old demos you recorded on your phone under your comforter.
Listen to others
The beauty of Voices.com is that you can see/hear what other talent in your demographic are doing and presenting. Take the time to listen to their demos and take notes. Don’t copy them outright, but it’s worth seeing how successful VOs handle this on the site.
Quality & Quantity
It’s important to have a lot of demos so you know you’ll be sent every job that might possibly match you. But if you are advertising garbage, that’s not going to do you any favors no matter how many demos you’ve got.
*TIP: Use your auditions to build out your catalog. If you read something and you find yourself thinking, “Dang, I’m good at this one.” use it! Just make sure there are no NDA’s or clauses prohibiting the use of this audio for any reason.
Auditions - When to Submit or Pass
There are a few things that can factor into this, and some of it may come down to personal preference.
When you’re starting out…
AUDITION FOR EVERYTHING.
The benefit of Voices.com is that it lets you try things without penalizing you. When I was beginning my career I had no idea what my niche was, and what kinds of jobs suited me. Auditioning for every job that came through my inbox was instrumental in not only building my skills and just getting better at the craft, but it helped me to better understand what my voice and disposition was and is suited for.
Here are some other pointers for starting out:
Try to submit 10 auditions a day if you can
Setting yourself a goal like this can help keep you accountable on days when the last thing you want to do is get in the booth, and often those are the days I end up booking things!
Don’t overthink things
Starting out it’s easy to spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour on an audition until you get it PERFECT. Stop. Spontaneity, humanity, and imperfections show you to be a real person and ultimately you’ll find yourself not only booking more but also having more fun.
Keep you audition audio
Like I said, these can come in handy as demos later on. Never pass up potential marketing material.
What the Client Sees
When you submit to a job on Voices.com, your audition gets put into a stack with all of the other auditions that have been submitted. The way Voices.com determines the order the client will see auditions is determined in the following order:
VoiceMatch Score — A 100% match will be seen before a 90% match, descending from there.
First Come First Serve — The earliest to submit will be towards the top of the pile.
This means that if you are the first person to submit to the job, but your VoiceMatch score is 80%, you will be the first of the 80% match submissions, and everyone who has a 90% and 100% match will be in line before you. This doesn’t mean that you won’t get the job! It’s just an important consideration for you to weigh whether or not it’s worth it for you to submit or not.
In my humble opinion, a match of 70% or below can mean that your audition will rarely get listened to.
Setting your Rate
For any VoiceOver job, its standard rate is determined by the:
Type of Job — (Corporate, Commercial, Audiobook, etc.)
Intended Distribution — (Non-Broadcast vs Broadcast; Local, Regional, National, etc.)
Length of Usage License — (13 weeks, 1 year, In Perpetuity, etc.)
Talent’s Expertise/Experience (to a lesser degree)
Fortunately, Voices.com has a standard rate scale built into their job posting rubrics on the client’s side of things, so more often than not the compensation is pretty fair—though of course there are exceptions.
Tips for Setting Your Rate
Don’t undersell yourself
It can be tempting to underbid in order to get your foot in the door, especially at the beginning of your career. Don’t! For a couple reasons. First, Voices.com states that the majority of talent that end up winning the job, often bid in the higher end of the budget range. People want to hire exceptional talent and are predisposed to believe paying a premium for it ups the value of the service they are receiving. Additionally, by underbidding you’re also undercutting the actual value of the product/service you and the rest of the VO community are providing.
Check what a standard rate is. You can use these resources:
Mistakes are okay
Towards the beginning of my career, I would get halfway through a job and realize, “Oh my gosh, I’m not getting paid anywhere near enough for this.” It’s a great learning experience and you’ll never make that mistake again! So don’t be hard on yourself if that happens.
I hope this was helpful for you, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out or leave a comment below.