So - you're frseh into the big wide world of voiceover and voice acting, but you've got absolutely no idea where to look for your first job.
I get it, it's incredibly daunting - especially when there are SO many options.
I wanted to write a post today that would hopefully sum up a few (definitely not all - there are a lot) of the available websites that present opportunities to voice talent and other creatives alike. Let's get straight into it.
P2P Sites (Pay to Play)
P2P sites, in short, are casting sites on which members will pay a subscription, be it monthly or annually, to be a part of. Generally speaking, these sites do pay well - if you can get a job. In fact, that's a good point to mention - ALL of these sites present opportunities alongside a lot of competition. You will get rejected and you won't get every job. That's entirely OK - that's the life of a voiceover artist.
Prices for P2P sites range from as low as £10 a month, up to £400 a year. Paying this premium fee will give you access to castings posted by companies looking for their next VO artist. There's generally no restriction to the types of project you'll see on these sites - commercial, acting, corporate, podcasts, TV spots...
So how do they work? Simple - a client posts a 'gig' with a sample script, some directions and a budget, then you jump into your booth and record your take on it. Easy, right?
So, here's a few on the sites - please note that any information on these sites and their reliability is purely my OWN EXPERIENCE. Yours may be different! And a final note - this is from the perspective of a BRITISH voiceover artist. I know for a fact that the sites that present opportunities for American VOs is vastly different!
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Mandy Network
Probably my most used site out of all of these. At a cost of £18 p/m or £128 p/y, it's certainly one of the more affordable options on the market. As a British voiceover artist, I find that this website has the most opportunities for me, hands down. I've also had the most success on Mandy, connecting with numerous clients that have kept me on for various other projects.
Opportunities come nicely on Mandy, with it not being unusual to see 4/5 postings in a day. A great one to check through the day, as postings can provide budgets up to £1000. My one gripe with this site? People messaging you to tell you that you DIDN'T get a role. Why bother?
Bodalgo
I must confess, I'm a newcomer on Bodalgo. I hesitated on it, because it didn't seem like there were a lot of opportunities for me. I took the plunge at the beginning of the year and gave it a go - so far, no successful auditions, but that's just the way the game is sometimes.
Bodalgo sits at a cost of 39.30 euro for a month, 199.90 euro for 6 months and 349.90 euro for a year. Pricey, especially if you're not bagging many opportunities on there. I will say that there were more opportunities than I had originally thought - I expect to see somewhere between 5-10 postings a week, with budgets sitting anywhere from 150 euro - 1500 euro.
Voices
I used to swear by Voices! It had (and still has) my favourite UI and website design out of all of the P2P sites. Simple, sleek, with a handy few displays that tell you when a client has listened, shortlisted your auditions and WHEN they did such things. You can also see if a job you've been shortlisted for has closed or is still going. Very nice.
The kicker, however, is the $499 annual price tag. For me, this was worth it. I've had a reasonable amount of success on it, securing gigs with very comfortable rates (I even bagged a sound design gig that had a going rate of £2500 - a very nice surprise!). I will say, however, that it seems awfully competitive on there. You will get shortlisted for a lot of jobs and nothing will never come of it. It's slightly disheartening to never see it pull through, though it's nice to know that you're good enough to get shortlisted (heaven knows we all need that motivation sometimes).
VoicesUK
I'm aware that there's a US counterpart for VoicesUK, but I have not used it (for hopefully obvious reasons). First off, my favourite thing about this site is the subscription model.
It's a one off payment! What a bloody treat.
VoicesUK comes at a cost of £99.99 for a LIFETIME membership. I love this - it's accessible and it's affordable. However, that does come with the caveat that you do not get many postings on this site. And by that, I mean 1 or 2 a week at a maximum. You do get to set your own budget per offer, which is nice, but there's no way to know if the client has considered your offer or not (though this isn't particularly unusual for these sites). I recently completed my first project on VoicesUK in accordance with the sites founder, Joe (who is great, by the way) and it was an incredibly smooth and simple project. I felt truly respected as a voiceover artist, which doesn't always occur working on some of these sites - so props to that!
Voice123
This one will be short. For me, as a British voiceover artist, this site has not come through for me. Almost every gig seems to be US and Canada.
Now, I will say that maybe there's an issue with my filter settings somewhere, but I just don't seem to see any UK postings on here. That being said, the rates for the gigs that are posted seem incredibly good. So, if you're a US artist, maybe it's worth a look?
For cost, there's a few too many options for me to go through here. To sum it up, it's free to use, but you won't get access to postings straight away, with many postings having a limit of submissions. If you want to pay, costs range from $49 for the cheapest, to a whopping $4,950 for the platinum tier.
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I'm going to cut it there - it would be disingenuous of me to speak about my experience on any other sites that I'm not particularly versed on.
There are, of course, many other sites - intermediaries like Voquent, hustler sites like Fiverr. I'll go through these in a different post, as I have a lot to say.
I hope this gives you a little insight on some of these sites from my perspective. Again, this is from the view of a British voiceover artist, which will differ greatly from a US artist. I've tried to keep all of this as impartial and honest as possible, but if you spot anything wrong, flag it up to me.
What's your experience with these sites? Drop me a comment - I'll be really interested to hear from more of you.
Peace out. Be kind!
Elliot
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