An Open Letter to Voices' New CEO: 7 Ways to Make Up with the VO Community

It’s November and as we stare down the barrel of the Holiday Season, it's clear that 2023 has held more change and transition for the VO business than any of us knew at the start of the year.

We’ve also seen some change and transition in the PSP platforms, especially at the largest of the VO-specific platforms, Voices, as they replaced Founder David Ciccarelli as CEO with interim CEO Jay O’Connor in October.

So today as we start wrapping our heads around 2024, I think there’s an opportunity here to begin to repair a fraught relationship between the platform and the voice over community, and so I thought I’d write an open letter to Voices and Interim CEO, Jay O’Connor.

I believe that Voices can run a healthy, profitable business, provide significant value for shareholders, and have an ethical, collaborative relationship with the voice actors who provide the services upon which Voices is built.

Here are a few steps Voices can take to start to repair our relationship and show some good will toward the voice-acting community.

The Rise and FALL of VOICES and VOICE123

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to remember Voices and Voice123. Both had lives with so much promise, yet cut so short. We had such hopes for you.

But as The Good Book says, “Yay, though I walked through the shadow of the valley of the pay to plays, I shall fear no evil, for the GVAA Rate Guide is with me.

Lord, we pray for these souls, Voices and Voice123, that though they be twisted and tortured by the evil of publicly traded corporations, that you may deliver them, Lord, once again into the kingdom of private ownership.

Pray with me, brothers and sisters. Lay your hands on your mobile device right now. Can I get a hallelujah?

[Hallelujah!]

All this we pray in the name of fair compensation and usage. Amen.

casting sites, sag-aftra, the vo industryPaul SchmidtNovember 2, 2023Voices.com, voice123, voice123.com, voices, p2p, p2ps, pay to play, pay to playsComment

A Dialogue with Voice123: Can We CHANGE the P2Ps?

What if we could change how the P2Ps work? What if we could have a real dialog with the decision-makers, the policymakers, at the online casting sites? What if we could make actual recommendations directly to the people at the top of the pay-to-plays?

Now, it's one thing to have a monologue to someone in such a position as we did with David Ciccarelli of Voices in a couple of videos prior to this.

But it's another thing entirely to be able to ask questions from and make recommendations directly to the CEO of a major P2P platform.

Now, as it happens, one such opportunity is coming up.

the vo industryPaul SchmidtJanuary 12, 2023voice123, Voices.com, voices, p2ps Comments

Using Online Casting Sites SMARTLY: 3 Scenarios

I am staunchly against relying on the voiceover casting sites as a long-term strategy for growing your business.

Note: I said relying on. If the lion's share of your business is coming from the online casting sites, then chances are you're not developing your own relationships and you're leaving your business and yourself vulnerable.

But I do believe that there are certain times and circumstances where you can use websites for voiceover or work strategically.

In this post, I'm going to lay out three scenarios of when and how to use the online casting sites and which ones in each case to your advantage using the voiceover audition sites.

The VO Pro Blog