I OFFENDED Voices.com. And Here’s WHY…
In my last video, My (No Gear) Christmas Wishlist for Voiceover, one of my wishes was this:
"I wish all of the pay-to-plays were ethical, but the chief offender here, of course, is Voices.com, but they're certainly not the only ones that put profit before talent and clients. These companies control a huge amount of work globally in the voiceover business, and it's a travesty to me that rather than seeing themselves as leaders and stewards of our industry, they couldn't give a reindeer turd about anything else other than putting profit ahead of people - clients and talent."
And the very next day, I got an email from David Ciccarelli. David, if you don't know, is the founder and CEO of Voices.com, and it went like this:
"Hi, Paul.
I read your article..."
(I also post the videos to my pro blog at PaulSchmidtPro.com)
"...and found it insightful. I share many of those wishes. I do take offense to the accusation that Voices puts profit before talent. Help me understand the facts behind this accusation.
I can list out the many ways we support talent and have been in this business nearly 20 years. Founded Voices dot com and I can say with certainty that we've helped more talent than anyone.
I'd like to learn how we can improve.
Respectfully Yours,
David Ciccarelli
Well, David, thanks for reaching out. And thanks for the kind words.
You say that Voices.com has helped more talent than anyone, and I'm actually not going to dispute that point whatsoever.
Millions of talent by your numbers, which I can only assume are correct, have made ostensibly billions of dollars on Voices.com. And as a former Voices.com talent, I'm one of them. So thank you for that. That's a hell of a legacy, and that's something you and your team should be very proud of.
Now, I know you're Canadian, David, and you may not watch a lot of American college football, so you may or may not know the name Joe Paterno. He was the head football coach for Penn State University. And to this day is the winningest college football coach of all time.
He was also famous for his charitable contributions to Penn State. He and his wife donated over $4 million to different departments and and causes around the university at Penn State. And they also helped raise 13 and a half million dollars for the expansion of the Penn State Library. And they named that expansion in Joe's honor, calling it the Paterno library.
But his career ended in disgrace when it was revealed that Joe Paterno did not report at least one incident of child sexual abuse committed by one of his coaches who was later convicted over 52 counts of child sexual assault. Paterno's inaction brought disgrace to himself, to his family, to the football program, and to Penn State University.
And he died of lung cancer 74 days after being fired. He was never charged criminally in the case.
To be clear here, David, I am not comparing you with Joe Paterno in any way, shape or form, but the point of the Paterno story is this: you can do a world of good and still do a world of harm.
THE FACTS
You asked me to help you understand the facts around this "accusation." Well, I know you're well aware of them, but for those that aren't, here we go.
First, when Voices introduced professional services years ago, it didn't take talent long to realize that the same jobs being posted elsewhere were being posted on Voices.com for up to 60% less budget.
And as Marc Scott famously shared , when J. Michael Collins asked the question directly to Jennifer Smith of Voices, "Will there be transparency for talent?" The answer was simple and direct: "No."
So the facts are that Voices.com was taking egregious cuts of the budgets and not being transparent with not only talent, but also clients.
That's putting profit before talent.
Second, your own Terms of Service on your website waives the talent's rights to their intellectual property, and it's buried deep within the document.
That's putting profit before talent.
In 2019, you partnered with VocalID to offer synthetic A.I. voices to compete with talent on your and ostensibly every other platform.
That's putting profit before talent.
In 2022, you chose to further lower the already subpar rates you accept for jobs to as low as $5, effectively charging talent hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year to compete with the equivalent of Fiverr.
That's putting profit before talent.
Also, in 2022, you introduced an affiliate program in which you offer up to $100 for, again, us talent to turn our contacts over to you.
That's putting profit before talent.
Now, if any of this has changed, David, please feel free to reach out and correct me. And I'll be more than happy to share that here.
So, to your question…
how can Voices improve?
So here's the thing, David. Even if all of that has changed, and it hasn't, you've already demonstrated a history of doing everything you can to exploit talent. A history of defiant opacity. A history of doing everything you can to enrich yourselves with no regard for talent or clients.
But I get it. I'm a business owner, too. I understand that one of the goals of business is to maximize profit.
But I also understand that the charge of a leader is to take care of the people who take care of your customer. And in that case, David, those people are the talent on Voices.com. Those are the people who provide the service that you sell.
Those are the people on whose back you built your business.
So, even if you were to change or have changed all of these transgressions, David, you've already peed in the pool, pal. We can't trust you. It's pellucidly clear that you don't see yourselves or your company as stewards or caretakers of our industry.
If you and the rest of the less-than-ethical pay-to-plays really want to improve, here's what it'll take in my personal view:
First, a complete commitment to supporting accepted professional voiceover rates like GVAA, like Gravy for the Brain, and on the union side like SAG-AFTRA. '
Next, complete transparency regarding budgets and fees on all jobs with both talent and clients. Down to the penny. Clients should know exactly how much of their money is going to us as talent and to the platform as the facilitator.
Third, complete transparency about who the client is. I'll be damned if I'm licensing my voice to someone whose identity I don't know and whose business entity is at best unclear. Also, facilitate the ability for us as talent to be able to communicate directly with the client on platform or off having to work through a third party just to communicate unnecessarily bogs down the customer service process.
Next, abolish the membership tiers. Now, a lot of better-heeled talent will disagree on with me on this, but I believe that voice over should be a meritocracy. That there should be a level playing field. One reasonably priced membership, paid membership, tier that allows all paid members to compete based on talent, based on merit, not based on resources.
Fifth, a fair and reasonable Terms of Service for all parties involved, for your platform, for the talent, and for the clients. Make it clear and easy to understand. Look, I get it. My lawyer, Ashley Brooks, is one of the best in the business, by the way, she says, and she's right, that the law has not caught up with the technology. And I totally understand that, and I'm sympathetic to it. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Try, David, to write and evolve a fair and reasonable terms of service for everyone involved. Your platform, the clients, and us talent.
That's my shortlist, David, and I'll be honest with you, I'm not really interested in a verbal response.
I'm not big on words. I'm big on actions.
If you really want to improve Voices.com for the talent, we'll all know it.
Because we'll see it.
Respectfully Yours,
Paul Schmidt