Job postings on Mandy have decreased to almost nil in the last few months. Why? Are jobs that previously would have been posted on Mandy now being posted on Backstage (which I don’t belong to) instead, requiring an additional membership fee to see them? Is Mandy less competitive than before to VO clients for some reason? Other? In any case, the value of Mandy membership to VO talents has decreased accordingly.
Also and maybe relatedly, Mandy recently claimed that some great new features would soon be implemented. I haven’t seen any. What’s up with that?
Agree Donald. Postings on Mandy are few if any. Not sure if potential jobs are being moved to Backstage (which I do belong) or simply not many new being generated. Dont know that I will renew Mandy as I have received minimal work from this site. I am focusing on other sites and testing them out as this site doesn't seem to have much traction.
I just sent the following message to Mandy through their contact system and will share any reply on this thread if they don't post their reply to the thread directly. (Max permissible characters in contact messages = 300, apparently including spaces.)
I’m a Mandy premium member seeking VO work. Mandy VO job postings have recently decreased sharply so membership value has decreased accordingly. Please explain ASAP the reasons for this and what Mandy is doing to increase postings, to help me and others decide whether to remain paid members.
I've sent them a similar message, Donald. There was one response that didn't really address the question and when I let them know their reply wasn't pertinent they said they would look into it further. I've received one job in 2 years and more recently a production company in the UK contacted me through Mandy to audition for a project which wasn't posted on Mandy. I got the job and have been dealing with them directly. Also, someone else suggested to me to utilize the resources tab as there are agents listed that they have led to them getting representation in different markets. I haven't actually done that myself but I will. That may be the only useful aspect of Mandy as auditions are practically non-existent.
Luis: Congrats on booking the UK job. Was that production company Spiel Creative? I ask because they contacted me directly through Mandy recently and invited me to audition for a project. I did but wasn't selected. When asked, their rep said they invited 10 people, 5 M and 5 F based on a shortlist developed for a previous project. I'm on the fence about continuing my Mandy subscription which is due in a few days. I may pursue the agent list you mentioned and/or directly contact some of the many (mostly UK) production houses to which I submitted Mandy auditions in the past few years. Good luck in the future.
Yes, it is Spiel. They seem very nice to work with. I've recorded 4 of the 5 scripts that are part of the job. They haven't finalized the fifth script. Unfortunately, the British pound has lost value in the last couple of weeks so the US dollar payout at this moment isn't as good as when they hired me. Hopefully by the time I submit my invoice it will have gone up in value. Mandy certainly doesn't seem to be worth it and there doesn't seem to be any indication from them that it will improve.
Here is Mandy's reply today to my complaint about few new jobs being posted on its platform. Their rationale for the low posting volume is essentially low market demand. They are seemingly taking a passive approach to postings -- i.e., if casting directors choose to post gigs, great, but Mandy isn't assertively marketing itself to them as the platform of choice. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I sense some surprise at the concern I expressed about the few postings.
Hello Donald,
Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for providing us with this feedback this is certainly something I will pass on to our development team for investigation. Unfortunately, as we are not an employer or agency. We provide the platform for casting directors to post jobs, and for talents to apply for the roles. Jobs are dependent on market demand. I cannot promise an immediate change, but this is something that would definitely be included in the conversation as we develop the website’s functions further. If you have any further feedback, please do get back in contact.
We are not an employer or agency. We provide the platform for casting directors to post jobs, and for talents to apply for the roles. Jobs are dependent on market demand.
After receiving Mandy's reply noted above, Mandy sent me a follow-up survey asking how I would rate the support I received, with two options: Good, I'm satisfied; Bad, I'm unsatisfied. I chose the latter and gave the following explanatory comment:
"The reply (by Bukho) reflects a passive approach in which Mandy simply accepts whatever VO jobs "the market" offers without, apparently, working -- e.g., by intensifying its marketing efforts -- to increase the number of jobs posted on the Mandy platform. Passivity is inadequate because Mandy is competing with many other VO hiring platforms for VO job postings, which apparently are going elsewhere. As I mentioned earlier, the value Mandy offers its paying members has declined sharply, reducing members' incentive to continue paying Mandy membership fees."
FWIW: I let my Mandy membership renew for $75 a couple days ago for several reasons: the perhaps naive hope that job posting flow will increase in the coming months, to maintain my chance to use the Resources list of agents and employers posted on the website, and to continue learning on this platform from other VO talents such as yourselves.
I agree with all the above. It sure seems, since I've been a member, that these postings are few and are between. When I first joined, Mandy ensured me there would be many postings, but I'm not seeing it as of this date. However, I do apply to all postings that match my skills and voice, but no response so far. I know there's lots of gigs out there, but it sure seems like it's not on Mandy.
Great! I joined the premium today and was disappointed in the listings or lack of listings. Just saw this forum, my timing must be off! Have a good day everyone.
I'm so glad everyone here is so open. I'm shocked by how little listings I've seen here given it is a "pay to play" website. I see more gigs through Twitter! Makes me wonder where the membership money is going because that passive reply really said: "We let you use our site and take your money but we don't DO anything to help you out or draw in more gigs" to me.
I got a SCAM through Mandy today-- I wrote about it for the forum here, but it has to get through admins before it can be posted... I'm still waiting for that. I'm curious if they'll allow it to be posted-- though they SHOULD. Don't hold your breath...
LOL, they'd like one to THINK they're a clothing company, but as my screenshot of our conversation clearly depicts... they are NOT, in fact, the official Hollister Clothing brand... and their "marketing director" doesn't have any presence on LinkedIn (I asked), nor an official website. So my only guess is they're trying to trap VO artists into filling out W9's to phish for social security numbers... nasty nasty business. May they one day be able to sleep at night without a guilty conscience.
Courtney: Good detective work! I googled Hollisterphotography and found only a wedding photo website saying they are no longer doing weddings. Didn't think of searching LI. I wasted an hour writing a letter responding to the inquiry from "Vera Wallace" whose phrasing suggested it came from someone whose first language isn't English ("equipments"?) and that oddly sought an employee rather than independent contractor for VO work, but I didn't and wouldn't give them my SSN even on request without much more favorable verification. If "Wallace" replied to your first reply to her/them, what was it like? Oh well.... once again, all the VO casting invitations I get are frauds. (:
I saw on backstage that Mandy is now a part of it and profiles are getting synced. It could be a crossing of the wires that jobs for mandy are getting sent to backstage.
Really good discussion. I appreciate the openness. I abandoned Backstage at the time of the merger thinking, incorrectly, Mandy would be more voice actor centric. Backstage was full of non paying or low paying student film jobs and seemed to not be interested in serving the needs of voice actors, I thought I'd go to the side of the house that specialized in us. Whoops! But the good news is Mandy is just one of many. Voquent (another odd fish in this pond) published a list of the "Top 100 English Casting Sites". It contains Free sites, P2P sites, Agencies (Hey Roberta, here's your info) and miscellaneous sites. I discovered half a dozen sites, free, I'd never heard of. Registered on all six, so far have been accepted on two. Break a tooth everyone! (Hey, the screen actors have "break a leg" after all...)
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