Double Dutch

Your demos: sucked into cyberspace

August 28, 2009

Over the years I have learned that it’s always good to look outside of my own profession for inspiration. If you’re like me, you’re probably running a one-man (or one-woman)-show. We’re not only performers; in many case we act as our own agents, coaches, directors, sound engineers, web designers, marketing professionals, bookkeepers…. the list is endless. The joys of being an independent contractor are bountiful, and from time to time slightly overwhelming. Don’t you sometimes feel like one of those Chinese acrobats juggling too many plates?

But here’s the thing: at the end of the day, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m getting kind-of spoiled working for this boss of mine. He can be quite demanding and perfectionistic, but he’s a cool guy and some say he has a lot of potential…

During the past couple of weeks, I have been looking outside of my (soundproof) box, and I read up on things like web analytics, conversion management and interception rates. That doesn’t make me an expert, but at least I know where to go for info. In the process I was forced to take a good look at past audition submissions, and if you’ve been reading my recent blogs, you know that I wasn’t exactly impressed by what I discovered. Luckily, I found out that I was not alone. My ponderings struck an alarming chord.

In a few days, readership of this blog skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, and colleagues and pay-to-play site owners alike, contacted me personally. Of course this hype will be over in a few days, but I’ll take it as long as it lasts. To quote Jim Dale on the show ‘Pushing Daisies’: “The facts are these”… it looked like three quarters of all my custom demos had ended in a place called nowhere, simply because the voice-seeker had never bothered to award the job to someone. Is that what I was paying my subscription fees for? Or was this only part of the story?

The investigative journalist in me decided it was time to explore the issue further. One of the first things I did was look outside of my profession for some answers. That’s what lead me to a man named John. You should know that John hasn’t exactly had an easy time during this economic recession.  It was all due to his profession…

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Entry Filed under: Articles. Tags: auditions, conversion rate, Dutch, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, pay-to-play, success, voice-over, voiceover.