Usage Tip: Requirements In Auditioning

If you did not know, we Voice123 sends auditions back to the talent to submit again, if the audio quality is poor, or the person submitted something other than what was requested. We also email the voice talent what went wrong. Our team has listened to over two million auditions over the last 3 years, and we hear how ‘audio quality’ has become the ‘norm’. Of course, not everyone who auditions will be hired, and that is up to the client.

Feeling inspired...
The inspiration behind this blog came from seeing profiles with amazing credits, but after hearing their auditions, it left me wondering if they knew what it meant to audition from home. I never wish our staff to be perceived as arrogant. We wish only to state how we have seen things change since 2007, and what has changed when it comes to auditioning on Voice123. When I started here in 2007, voice seekers seemed to be somewhat forgiving of audio quality, as long as the copy reading was excellent. As online casting has grown, there has been a subtle shift, which we had started to write about close to a year ago.

What has changed? Usage tip?

• The necessity is audio quality. Make sure you have this nailed down.
• The deal breaker is how one is reading copy.
• Make sure you practice, either with voice coaches, or on your own.

The competition on Voice123 is more professional than ever before, but given the anonymous nature of the Internet where everyone is equal, a person with credits beyond credits, and amazing talent, may in fact lose out only because the audio quality is not there. Therefore, if you are reading copy that is connected and original, and you happen to have great audio quality, if you started 30 days ago or 30 years ago, you are both on equal ground.

What does this mean?
Reading copy is a skill that the best of them will make it look easy. That took practice. By comparison, a person does not become a chef simply because he has the best oven, nor does a great studio indicate one can book voice over work. This does mean that if you get work offline because you have the skill to read amazing copy in a studio, but when reading from home, your copy reading is muffled by a poor mic, you will not have much luck. Indeed, this is what many should never forget; traditional casting and online casting are two completely different ways of getting work that changes the way one ‘does business’, but the creative skill behind the mic must be there. Even with two markets, the same skilled voice talent work in both.

Thanks for reading!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
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