In less than two weeks, the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) takes place in New York City.   The conference itself is only one day, but the entire Audiobook publisher’s community makes this their seminal annual event by putting APAC in the context of other meet-ups, sessions, mixers, and awards.

For one thing, the Audies take place the day after APAC.  The Audies is the equivalent of the Oscars for audiobook narrators and publishers.  SAG-AFTRA  is holding a meeting…so is ACX (Audible), and the Book Expo America (BEA) also takes place at the same exhibit hall.  I’m sure I’m leaving something out.  Suffice it to say the world of audiobooks in North America comes together in every way during APAC.

This will be my second time going.  I’m finding audiobook work increasingly fulfilling as I’ve found more and better publishers to work for.  Making the commitment to be there and meet the movers and shakers of that business has been one of the best investments of my time and money in growing my voice-acting career.

In advance of the APAC event, there is a webinar coming up this next Tuesday that is an excellent warm-up.  Everybody’s favorite voice acting coach — Pat Fraley –  teams up with accomplished audiobook narrator — Scott Brick — and one of the true giants in all aspects of the audiobook publishing business — Robert Deyan — to hold a webinar called THE 2013 AUDIOBOOK GOLD RUSH.

That webinar team alone is worth the $47 dollar price of admission, but get this:  100% of the entry fee goes to help performer Nicole Nielson, who has been stricken with an incurable disease.  Nicole is one of Pat’s former students, and isn’t it just like Pat to go this extra mile to help someone in need?

Click this link to see all the details of the presenters and the subject matter of this webinar.  If you can’t attend during the hour-and-a-half webinar, no worries, a recording of the whole webinar comes with the price.

Thanks for considering contributing to this.

CourVO

Without getting to the politics of corporations, loyalties, patents, stock prices, or international intrigue, can I just say that Google is the new Apple?…the new Apple in the sense that they’ve earned the mantle of the hippest, coolest, most innovative and technologically edgy/highest quality products around.

The Google I/O Developer’s conference is underway right now.  At yesterday’s opening, the trend-setting tech giant made some significant announcements that will effect you and ostensibly how run your voice-over business.

Coincidentally, I was in an online Google Hangout twice yesterday, once for the TV station, and once with some voice-over friends.  I was struck in both situations by how much people DON’T know about the tools available on Google — incredibly enabling tools available on Google — for free!

I realize I have a tendency to gush about this stuff, but someone in voice-actor-land has to, and I’ve appointed myself.  :)

Two things are prodding Google:

1) they smell a weakened competitor in Apple, and they’re pouring on the coals
2) they’re locked in a battle for social media dominance (and so far losing) with Facebook

First, the World Domination Plan

Never has Google worked harder to unify it’s products and services…all built on what it knows about you, and the world in general.  Dozens of different apps, programs, and services are showing definite signs of stronger connecting threads, being tightened into a cohesive design that is ultimately about us.  Are they making oodles of money? Yes.  Are you benefiting with free services and best-of-class technology?  Definitely.  It would not be good for them to become a threatening monopoly, but as a free-market example that’s changing the world in a positive way, Google is about as good an example as you can find.

Second, the Hardware:

Google’s new Chromebook Pixel is out and in just about every way meets or surpasses the design and functional quality of the best Mac laptops.  Don’t believe me?  Check out this review on the ChromeBook Pixel on Engadget.  (BTW, it also has an Apple-like price).

Google Glass.  Any geek worth the duct tape on his black horn-rim glasses will tell you that they are drooling over this possibly culture-shifting invention.  I’m not kidding.  In a couple of years, half the population could be wearing these darn things.  Not much is being said about Glass at the developers conference, but they don’t have to…it’s got momentum on its own.

Third, the Services

Here, the most obvious signs are in Google Plus.  Wednesday, big changes in the look and feel of G+ were evident.  But under the hood it’s even more impressive.  Changes to the photo service…a multi-column layout…new features in Google HangOut, including standalone Google Hangout Apps.  Google Maps have been refined.  Google search is evolved.  You can now speak questions into it, and get spoken answers back.  Google Play Music All Access All Access lets you stream from curated genre collections and will automatically create and preserve playlists of new tracks based on what you already listen to. (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/).  There are Google Cloud improvements, more location-based services, and more, but it gets a little esoteric.  Here’s a great GeekSugar article on the G+ changes alone.

Fourth, Gmail and Beyond!

Gmail deserves its own category, because it’s the runaway success Google hopes G+ will be, and Gmail is still the center of the universe for Google’s integration/gateway to all it’s other services (YouTube, Calendar, Drive, etc).
Two days ago Google upped it’s free storage plan to 15 Gigabytes to be shared between Drive, Gmail, and G+ Photos.  That’s 15 Gigs free cloud storage, just because Google likes your face.  [The competitive fallout of that is noted in my "Ripple Effect" below.]  You can now send money to friends with Google Wallet and Gmail.  You can launch the new Google HangOut experience from Gmail, and you can add events to Google Calendar from Gmail.  All of this is explained in Google’s Gmail Blog.

Fifth, Ripple Effect

When the 800 lb. Gorilla in the cage moves, all the other denizens have to adjust.  Here are two examples of how smaller companies are reacting to Googles moves…resulting in more good news for us.

COPY is a relatively new cloud storage service that was offering 5 Gigs of storage for it’s “free” plan.  But now (alla sudden!) it’s offering 15 Gigs on it’s free plan (just like Google).  For real.  Copy is a promising service, and you can find out more about Copy’s 15 Gig free storage offer here.  Tell ‘em I sent you.  I mean it.  We both get more space if you mention that.  courvo@courvo.com.

SoundCloud is also reacting to Google’s moves.  There’s added support for Google+ sign in, making it easier than ever to log in or create an account — just use your Google+ credentials.  It’s also added sharing on Google+, so that you can share music & audio with your Google+ circles.  This is only an added feature for Android users so far.  Download here.

Almost everything I’ve mentioned here can help in your voice-acting marketing (even the maps function).  Begin with Gmail.  Configure it to receive your email from whatever other service you now use, and so it even looks like you’re sending from that other service, complete with signatures and everything!  Why?  Because you’re never gonna want to leave the Gmail universe once you see all the integrations I’ve just written about here.  It’s that good…all for free.

CourVO

…I was approached by a wannabe voice actor who touted his cold-calling abilities, not his great pipes.

I was floored.  Really.

I mean, how many times a month are you contacted by a newb who claims they’re always told they have a great voice, and were convinced that was their ticket to free riches.  I never discourage.  An engaging voice is a nice tool to have in your kit, but when it comes to a formula for VO success, the marketing trumps the mic 80% of the time.

In the interest of  full disclosure, this gentleman also mentioned: “…my voice has been described as sounding trustworthy, impartial and sincere and as having clarity and conviction.”  That’s nice, I thought…but who’s gonna hear that conviction unless you find some agents, or clients, or prospects to listen.

Well, in this case, the VO hopeful has a useful skill to drum up those prospects: a great record of cold-calling.  Often, your first call to a prospect is your first audition.  The quality of your speaking voice AND the finesse with which you handle the call just might get your foot in the door.

I encouraged this guy to persist…it was the first time I didn’t have to explain that a deep voice alone was not enough to be a runaway success in voice-acting.

So let me just encourage you, too.  Marketing advice is overwhelming on the web.  I’ve found a few reliable blogs and sites that consistently offer great marketing suggestions.  Below are a couple of recent articles:

How to Turn Your Best Customers Into a Growth Engine

27 of the Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned Since Starting My Own Business

Free Marketing Tips Blog

Six Smart Ways to Capture Emails

…and there’s more…so much more.

Here’s the definitive list for Marketing Blogs:  The Top 75 Must-Read Online Marketing Blogs.

Whew!

Now get out there and make some cold calls! (or not — it’s never worked for me, but Maxine Dunn swears by them!)

CourVO

My Dad was born about the time the Ford Model-T became popular.

He died in the middle of the digital boom, even though he wasn’t part of it.

I marvel at the changes he experienced, but I’m even more astounded by the pace of change WE are all seeing now.

Technology is a blessing and a curse…giving us immediate access and contact, while increasing the presumption of getting it all done much faster.  The human being in the middle hasn’t changed.  More is just expected of us.

Media Morph

Voice Acting is not immune.  I’ve often written here about disruptive VO technologies, the internet, the cloud, and endless new devices that are making our job more advanced, and I’d like to say “easier”… but not always.

In my TV job, there are almost daily reminder of the morphing of journalism, content streams, digital news gathering, and device-driven viewing patterns.  Much of what happens there effects us as voice-actors, too…as some of the most lucrative work in VO comes from radio and TV adverts.

The highly-successful Social Media manager for the Ford Motor Company — Scott Monty — wrote a most perceptive article the other day:  MUST-NO-SEE-TV.  Take a moment to read it, and you will not regret it.  It basically states that we’re a victim of our own content over-abundance.  That all our cloud storage, time-shifted DVR programs, and net-streaming devices give us more than we can possibly consume.

Caught in the Middle

The hard part is that there is very little middle-ground.  It seem you must either be committed to the pell-mell pace, or go off the grid entirely to maintain your sanity.

Nothing has contributed more to that panic than the internet, and now…social media.  The business of voice-overs became enabled by the ease of contact through the internet, but it isolated us in our own home studios…then turned THAT on its ear when social media streams and forums allowed for real-time sharing of all that interests us.  Who knows what’s next?

Keeping Track

This is why I love being a student of social media.  It’s cutting edge.  What’s happening there at the edge is tomorrow’s world.  But one thing that hasn’t changed is the math.  Even Gutenberg’s first publishing distributors were interested in keeping track of how many volumes were sold.  Newspapers had their readership, and TV has it’s Nielsen numbers.

The internet is still struggling to find successful monetization, but rest assured, it will be decided by the numbers.  Google Analytics, Klout scores, and Kred cred (or some iteration of SEO metrics) are the hope of next year’s millionaires.

I try to keep track as best I can, but what I know pales in comparison to the mega-mongo metrics list I stumbled upon last night.  It begs you to take a look if only by the sheer preponderance of its exhaustive research.

50 Top Tools for Social Media Monitoring, Analytics, and Management

Honestly, if you can’t find the right measurement tool here, then it’s time to go back to Algebra 101.

…and if you read this far, I want to thank you for hanging with me in my ramblings today.  I thought it needed to be said.

CourVO

That old adage about beauty being in the eye of the beholder comes to mind as I sit down to write this blog about demos..

The art or performance that appeals to me or you may not trigger any response in the next person.  The whole process is so subjective, opinionated, and couched in experience, expectation, interpretation, and understanding.

And yet, there is no more important calling card the Voice Artist can present to a prospect beyond the “DEMO”.  Good auditions are essential for getting you the job, but a demo can get you in the door.

Which Demo?

Anymore, accomplished voice artists have MANY demos.  Corporate narration, IVR, E-Learning, Gaming, AudioBook, Animation, Promo, and the list goes on.  And yet, it’s the traditional COMMERCIAL demo that seems to be the de-facto standard.

And yet, even that may be changing.  People approaching a career in Voice-Acting are smart to realize their abilities (or limitations), and play to the genre that epitomizes their strength…then focus everything on that.

As a renaissance guy with fractionated interests in everything from archeology to paper airplanes, it’s been hard for me to accept the fact that I may not be so good at certain specialties.  I want to conquer them all.  Realistically, though, I’m beginning to scratch off the ones that I either don’t appeal to me, or that I can’t reasonably  achieve in the time I have left on this earth.

The commercial demo is not one of them.  I just know I’m gonna hit it big.

Where to Post?

I’m actually not a big fan of posting my latest demo to peers.  I see it done a lot on the Social Media groups and forums, and I like to listen to them, but I’m not sure it achieves a lot.  On the other hand, it IS a statement of one’s latest work.  You also never know when a fellow voice actor might hear something in your demo that would then earn you a referral when THEY see a job posted that reminds them of something YOU did in your demo.

In that spirit, then, I’m posting my latest commercial demo below.  I will tell you that there are many talented directors, producers, engineers, and coaches who deserve your demo business.  I talked to quite a few of them in deciding who should do my next demo.  I’m not going to name names, but if you want a copy of my short list, I’ll be happy to email it to you (courvo@courvo.com).

The VO Doctor

I decided to go with Bill Holmes.  Bill has been on my radar for some time.  He keeps showing up at Voice-Over conferences, and has gushing testimonials from many a respected coach and producer.

Bill is an accomplished stage actor, producer, voice actor, director, and all-around fun guy.  He’s also a closet psychologist with a great understanding of what is marketable these days… something I find is a valuable asset among demo producers (Nancy Wolfson is certainly tops in this category, too, and produced my last demo).

Bill is all over the web, but here are his two most-traveled sites:

Compost Productions

The VO Doctor

I’m very happy with what Bill came up with from our sessions.  Please feel free to offer any feedback.  I mean it.  I wanna hear it, and so does Bill.  So comment below if you’re so moved.  Or not.  After all, VO beauty is in the ear of the beholder, too.

CourVO

Many of us who were not lucky enough to attend FaffCamp, did NOT hear Cliff Zellman’s big announcement last weekend.

Your first introduction to that presentation may have been from my friend and fellow VO blogger Paul Strikwerda, who wrote about Zellman’s new brain child “Done By Six” just as Cliff was hitting the stage at FaffCamp to explain.  It’s a groundbreaking new way to develop a voiceover demo.

Going back many months, Cliff shared his idea with me in the bleachers at TCU’s women’s soccer stadium last October (see pic of us below this article in ‘related stories’).  I had come to Ft. Worth to see my daughter play, and Cliff came to watch, commiserate, and excitedly tell me about his big idea.  It was in the formative stages then…and I agreed to keep the news under my hat.  Now it’s out of the bag…and WOW!

Zellman’s plan is to draw in expert associates to direct demo candidates, then to aggregate the resulting sound files into the cloud, where professional audio engineers do the final mix.  That’s an over-simplification, but that’s why I’ve arranged with Cliff to explain it in his own words below in a Skype interview we did just yesterday.

Perhaps the most unique facet of Done By Six is the “dream team”…a set of top microphones that Zellman sends to each demo candidate to use in their own studio to record their voice.  He explains the value of using different mics in the video.

It’s great hearing Cliff explain it himself, though, ’cause you can see the passion and commitment he has to this idea.  Nonetheless, he DID supply me with this mission statement for Done By Six:

See?  I told you it was a ground-breaking development in the making of a voice acting demo!

Now, hear as Cliff tells it in his own words, then a couple more notes about all this beneath the video player.

Cliff Zellman explains DoneBySix demos from Dave Courvoisier on Vimeo.

In case you don’t know…Cliff Zellman has more than proven himself as a producer, director, casting agent, audio engineer, friend, supporter, and colleague to many of us in this business.  You can read Cliff Zellman’s professional bio here.

Here’s the Done By Six website.

While you’re at it, stop by the Done By Six FaceBook Page and click “like”!

‘Can’t wait to hear your new demo…Done By Six!

CourVO

There is no one single piece of iconic equipment we identify with more than the microphone.  It’s so hard NOT to put it in your branding material, your website, on your business card… even though it’s cliché in the extreme.

So what?!  The microphone IS an extremely important part of the equation that makes you a VO success.  Microphone choice should be a personal decision based variously on gender, timbre, available cash, and vocal style (among other things).

Oh, and it kinda depends on being able to take advantage of the best deal when it pops up.

Hence, today’s blog!

Amazingly (I’m being sarcastic), two of the top audio equipment suppliers both launched Microphone sales on the same day!  How odd!

Again:  so what??!!  Take advantage.

I bought my first VO mic from one of these vendors for $300 many moons ago, and that was a $100 savings.

Hopefully, you’ve done your due diligence by stopping into your local Sam Ashe, Guitar Center, or similar audio-equipment store nearest you, and test-drove a number of mics already, and you’ve just been waiting for the right price to come along.  Here’s your chance!

BSW (Broadcast Supply WorldWide) launched their “Microphone Mania Month” sale this morning, and by evening-time, Sweetwater had answered with their own  “May is MicMonth”  promotion.

I’ve done business with both of these vendors.  Both are honest, eager-to-please, helpful, and more-than-happy to have your business.

Don’t be snookered into buying something you don’t need, but there are some serious bundled package savings here, and some decent deals on peripherals (mic-screens, cables, shockmounts, and booms) too.

Happy hunting for your next great mic!

CourVO

(disclaimer:  I receive nothing as kickback for mentioning these companies or their mic sales.  In fact, you will find no advertising on this blogsite, period.)

CenturyLink is a relatively small Telecom player, but they are the main provider of traditional (wired) phone service in Las Vegas.  They are also aggressively moving into competitor Cox Cable’s typical realm:  TV and Internet.  Which is why Adobe should talk to them.

You see, Tuesday, CenturyLink’s internet service went down all across the country.  Something went wrong with their core servers, and more than a million customers nationwide lost Internet service…including Las Vegans.  From 1:30am till about 10am tons of people had to make-do without their internet.

So why should Adobe Systems care?  You know…Adobe: the software powerhouse…the developer of Photoshop and Premiere and Acrobat, and — especially for many Voice Actors — Adobe Audition.

Well, coincidentally, Adobe announced yesterday that Adobe’s aggregated Creative Suite software product would be moving to “the cloud”.  That means designers, photographers, videographers, web developers, and voice actors will be getting future versions of Adobe software from an online server, not from an installed CD set.

I get it.  Everybody and their 3rd cousin is moving to the cloud.  I’ve extolled the virtues of the cloud a number of times in this blog.  Overall, I think moving programs, storage, and communication online is a brilliant idea, and a juggernaut that can’t be stopped.

Then…something like CenturyLink’s outage happens.

Alright, then, just so you know…this is the risk we accept by moving to “the cloud”.  If you were expecting to upload your final audio files from your Las Vegas home to a needy client on a Tuesday morning deadline, you would’ve been in trouble.  Maybe if you had a neighbor with Cox internet, and he owed you a favor, you might’ve gotten it done.

Also (and you heard it here first)…if the Chinese keep up their unabated hacking into American Defense systems, you can expect this to happen a lot more…I’d even go so far as to say that future wars will be fought online, not on desert steppes.  In fact, the USA would be hobbled by cyber-attacks on our internet system, water systems, energy grids, you-name-it.

But that’s not today, or tomorrow…just down the road.  In the meantime, if you don’t use Adobe Audition, get ready for Avid, or Sony, or any of the other audio-software developers to go “cloud” too, and within a year or two.

And if I were you, I’d be seeking reassurances from YOUR local provider that they have a back-up plan when their “core servers” go down.

CourVO

Al Pacino is about as big as it gets in tinsel-town.

He’s never done a voice-over role before…and now he continues in that deficit… although it was close.

Pacino was all set to be the voice of the villain Eduardo in the animated film Despicable Me 2… but pulled out two month’s before the film’s release!  Benjamin Bratt will now take his place in the flic.  Pacino cited “creative differences”.

Read about it on International Design Times (of all places), also the following sterling publications:

http://www.webpronews.com/al-pacino-quits-despicable-me-2-in-middle-of-recording-2013-05

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/06/al-pacino-quits-despicable-me-2

http://www.bubblews.com/news/480022-al-pacino-quits-in-middle-of-shooting-despicable-me-2

http://www.christianpost.com/news/al-pacino-quits-despicable-me-2-replaced-by-benjamin-bratt-video-95432/

This is what you can do when you get so big, you can really throw your weight around, I guess.

Where was the casting call when Pacino quit?  Well, I guess they had to scramble for a “name” who was available…like…yesterday.  But… Benjamin Bratt???!!!

CourVO

Google started it.  Facebook capitalized on it.  LinkedIn got on board, and now Twitter is following suit.

All these social networks offer ways to advertise your services.  Twitter’s maiden offering is a new self-service ad platform.  ‘Great article complete with how-to directions from HubSpot: HERE’S HOW IT WORKS.

Since serious money can be involved, you might want to seriously consider a move to spend advertising dollars marketing yourself on social media.  Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Having offered that caveat, I must say I’ve been impressed with the results that some voice-actors have gotten with SMART use of social media ads.  One voice talent has literally built his business 2-3 times its size from a year ago with savvy FaceBook advertising.

Such moves are not for the faint of heart.  You can, of course, tackle this yourself with oodles of study time which you probably don’t have, or hire a consultant to at least guide you through the basics.  Others will do this for you, for a fee.  There are a CRAZY number of people who claim to know how to do this for you.  Be careful!

You might start with these helpful articles:

10 Questions You Must ask When Hiring a Social Media Consultant

21 Social Media Marketing Tips From the Pros

Social Media Ads:  Should You Be Buying Them?

If you’re a social media craz-o like me, you might want to at least dabble a little in this on your own, after doing your due diligence in research.  Here are more articles I’ve found valuable:

How to Advertise on Social Media:  Step-by-Step on 4 Networks

New Ways to Advertise on Social Media

Forbes:  How to Triple Your Success Using Social Media Advertising Platforms

Let me know if social media advertising is working for your Voice Over business.

CourVO