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VOICE OVER ONLINE CASTING Backstage Buys Voice123. What's It Mean For Voice Actors As The Big Get Bigger? September 17, 2021 (VOXtra) - In a $200 million buying spree this year, entertainment casting heavyweight Backstage recently bought two film-related companies - and voice over online casting giant Voice123. See announcement. The trend and the path forward for mega companies is clear, observes J. Michael Collins, a leading authority on online casting. And so is the meaning of it all for voice actors, and what they should consider doing now ...  By J. Michael CollinsVoice Actor, Coach & Producer If you are a voice actor who makes any substantial portion of your income from the online casting sites Voice123 or Voices.com, it's time for you to get on Fiverr. Buried the lede there, didn't I? Has JMC gone off his meds? you ask. No. Not today at least. And let
me be very clear: I am NOT advocating the use of Fiverr by professional
talent. Yet I do not presume to judge anyone who earns money doing
voice overs on Fiverr or other low budget platforms. I'm not so arrogant
as to believe I can put myself in their shoes and understand their
circumstances. It's not a platform that I find appealing professionally
or personally, and therefore I don't partake, but to each their own. However, if you are a professional talent earning professional
industry-standard rates on the major pay-to-play sites, the acquisition
of Voice123 by Backstage demands that you learn how to use Fiverr at
your earliest convenience. VOICE123 'COMPLETE MAKEOVER' If you have been paying attention over the last two years, you'll
have noticed significant changes made to the functionality of Voice123
and Voices.com. Voice123 has had a complete makeover, and has begun to
incorporate more and more features designed to drive not just traffic,
but engagement. From rating and ranking systems to endorsements to
direct booking features and an escrow system, the changes to
Voice123 are designed to create more touchpoints to keep buyers and VOs
on the platform longer, all of which can potentially be monetized over
time. Voices.com has also made engagement-driven changes, and has stepped
out front in adding additional voice over-adjacent services to its
offerings to buyers.
These changes are only the very beginnings of an evolution of both of
these platforms to become larger multi-service marketplaces based off
of the Fiverr model. MULTI-SERVICE MARKET CAPS Why would they do this? Simple. It's all about the Benjamins. Fiverr has a market capitalization of $7.8 billion. Billion. With a B. Now, to be fair, voice over is but one component of the traffic on
Fiverr, which offers a wide array of freelance services often at bargain
basement prices. However, if you add up all of the other P2Ps,
including Voices and Voice123, combine them, and multiply the traffic by
ten, that's how much voice over work is touching Fiverr every day. They
are a billion dollar company with a national-level advertising budget
that dwarfs the tens of thousands that Voice123 and Voices can spend. Yes, the vast majority of that work is thirty-dollar-a-holler stuff that
pros won't touch, but that doesn't matter to investors and big tech. Like a ride share service or food delivery app, the money is made on the
churn. Every interaction with the platform is monetized, and it's all
about quantity, not quality. Private equity companies see engagement and
transaction volume, and they see dollar signs. MEGA PLATFORM COMING Backstage also recently acquired Mandy, a UK-based freelance platform that
many voice actors and on-camera actors use, as well as several other
freelance platforms that are less well-known among VOs. By adding
Voice123, they are capturing as much potential traffic as their bankroll
will allow. While these sites may continue to operate independently for
a time, eventually you can expect them to evolve into a mega-platform
that will be attractive as an acquisition target to even bigger fish
like Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc., and the model that has proven most
successful from a sheer revenue and traffic standpoint in this regard
is Fiverr. AS FOR THE OTHERS ... Voices.com are no dummies either. Guided by relationships with their
own institutional investors, they are positioning themselves for their
own play into the services marketplace arena on a broader scale. Over time, you can expect that platform to evolve into something that
functionally and cosmetically very much resembles Fiverr as well, as
they look to capitalize on the freelance services industry's most
effective model. Meanwhile, boutique platforms like bodalgo.com, VOPlanet, and
CastVoices will continue to take more talent-centric approaches that
focus on quality over quantity, because the ownership of these platforms
are industry people first and tech entrepreneurs second. They are eager
to make a profit, but not obsessed with becoming billionaires. As the
coming years unfold, you will see a very stark divide emerge between
sites that are smaller and focused on professional quality and
professional rates, and massive conglomerates that acquire competitors
and focus only on traffic regardless of the value of the transaction,
(which is not to say they will be entirely bereft of quality work.) WHAT'S IT MEAN FOR YOU? What does all of this mean for the hundreds of serious pro VOs who
earn consistently from Voice123 and Voices.com? It means you need to
start learning the mechanics of Fiverr. Not because you will be using
that platform specifically as a place to generate work in the future
(though with a $7.8 billion dollar valuation, who knows, they might
eventually just gobble up all the other players), but because the
platforms you are familiar with will start to look a lot more like
Fiverr in the not-too-distant future. You need to learn:
Or, perhaps, begin to
de-emphasize online casting sites as part of your business plan
altogether, and instead, focus on:
LEARN HOW IT WORKS People have long complained that online casting platforms make
commodities of voice actors. While there has always been an element of
truth to that, many VOs have been able to use these platforms in a
manner that was both highly profitable and respectful of the greater
industry at large. But as these sites evolve from mom and pop startups
into mature corporations
controlled by bigger and bigger masters, the future may look a lot more
like running the rate race at the direction of the folks in the C-Suite. If you plan to be a part of that future, you need to learn how it
works. --------------------------- ABOUT J. MICHAEL In more than 20 years as a professional voice actor, J. Michael Collins has worked with many of the world's largest companies, brands, sports leagues and organizations - in both the classic agency-based VO world and online casting marketplace, where he has become a leading authority. He is also recognized as an industry-leading voice over coach and award-winning demo producer, and is a multi-time Voice Arts Award nominee and winner as voice actor, demo producer, script writer and casting director. Email: jmichael@jmcvoiceover.com Web: www.jmcvoiceover.com CLICK FOR THESE ADDITIONAL VO ONLINE CASTING ARTICLES |
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