I'm just going to throw a Devil's Advocate shaped hat into the ring. A very large factor in this discussion is not being discussed: Covid and it's affect on the home studio market. The amount of people outside of the market that all of a sudden set up home studio shingles was staggering. Still is. It is much harder for the clients to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Clients have also changed their budgets. Certain assumptions have been made about the cost of home studios and some clients feel a larger budget is not longer required to get the project done. A lot of my friends are sound engineers and a lot lost work because of the rise of VO home studios. just something to think about.
How many auditions is a tough question in a way with a lot of factors. These factors range from over saturation of applicants, rates offered by the VO talent are all of a sudden too high, or even the auditions being sent aren't very good quality. this is where an honest friend with a good ear comes in, but that's a different conversation.
The average booking rate pre covid for a P2P site was 2-3% versus auditions submitted. Yet we are still choosing to be here.
Daunting? yes. It's part of the business these days. the business has changed, will keep changing and we have to change with it. There is still a lot of work that can be done to make this a business, including sourcing clients, improving your vocal and mic techniques and networking. A friend of mine sends out a minimum of 200 emails a week searching for new clients, and she is in the booth almost 10 hours a day. she is already successful to some of us. For her, it's part of her job. So she gets annoyed when someone posts, "I can't wait until I'm at your level working so much"... her response is "wait to get to my level? you need to earn my level, work hard, send thousands of emails, make mistakes and sweat.... there is no waiting." I love that answer.
Am I a working Voice actor? yes. It is my only source of income. my booking rate from this site? out of 94 auditions -- 3 charity projects, 7 thanks for auditioning but we went another way (which are actually nice to get) and 2 jobs that keep emailing me saying the project dates are being pushed, could I be patient.
Why? Could be I'm a Canadian in London that sounds like an Irish American when I get tipply. very niche. Could be my voice just doesn't suit many of the jobs on the market. It could be 308 people auditioned for the job and I was unlucky enough to get picked. Could be my voice is not pitched right for their pitch.... see what I did there.... ahem.... cough....
For me, I look at each audition as a little project. do your best, have some fun and move on. Mandy helps get me some of those projects. It's a different environment than some other P2P sites. Please remind yourself that it's a lot like Vegas (or Blackpool if you are on a budget), P2P stands for Pay to Play. NOT Pay to Win. You need to understand and enjoy the game. If it's too expensive to play, don't pay. nuff said. Find another avenue. And there are many. There are marketing teachers that can point you there.
I'll bet many people have negative stories. You need to ask yourself, why am I doing this? is this helping me achieve my goals, and if it isn't, move on. Don't let the negative get you down. My suggestion would be be to wrap 2021 up in a bow and put it under the tree, or burn it as a yule log. Start making plans now, for the new year. things will change again. Decide if you are going to but a positive spin or negative spin on your chosen path. Alas, poor Mr Frost, this is no longer the path less trodden, but the amenities that are appearing are amazing.
Have a very festive season, merry ho ho and spectacular beginning to the new year.
Cow Bella
Kasper
