Voices CEO UNANNOUNCED Pop-in at VO Atlanta: FIREWORKS ENSUE

There was a surprise, stealthy, mystery guest this year at VO Atlanta, and fireworks ensued! 

There I was, on stage in the main ballroom at VO Atlanta, getting ready to take my seat on The Famous Online Casting Panel. J. Michael Collins, the moderator, walks by and announces to the panel, “65 seconds!”

I turn and a man in a blue plaid sportcoat holds out his hand and says, “Hi, Paul. I’m Jay O’Connor, Voices CEO.”

And my first thought was, is this guy gonna curse me out? Stare me down? Take a swing? I don't know.

The Famous Online Casting Panel (L-R): J. Michael Collins, Paul Schmidt, Rolf Veldman, Brad Hyland, Bev Standing, Carin Gilfry, and Jay O’Connor. Photo: Vicki Liston

Because if you've been a subscriber for a while, you'll remember back in November of 2023 when Voices unceremoniously replaced former CEO David Ciccarelli with now Jay O’Connor.

I wrote an open letter to Voices and their new CEO.

So, I wasn't really sure what to expect when JMC then announced that he had secretly invited Jay O’Connor to be the mystery guest, the surprise guest at the famous online casting panel.

But I knew, based on history, this was going to be interesting.

I was there at VO Atlanta in 2019 when then new CEO Rolf Veldman showed up right after the disastrous relaunch of that platform and Rolf famously had his ass handed to him in that room.

So, Jay introduces himself to me. I sit down coincidentally right next to Rolf and Rolf laughs and turns to me and says, “Well this takes the heat off of me,” and he was right.

And while it went better for Jay this year than it did for Rolf, there were still lots of fireworks but I'll get to that in a moment.

First, I want to say that because I was on the panel and because Jay was a surprise guest and I had no idea just how interesting this would be, I was not prepared to take notes and I haven't had the benefit of reading a transcript or watching video from the panel.

So, when I talk about my impressions from the panel, I'll be paraphrasing quite a bit if I don't get it quite right, well, tough titties.

Now, J. Michael immediately set the tone for the entire panel with his first question, which was directly to Jay O’Connor: “Jay, do you apologize for the past? transgressions of the former regime”?

And after a very pregnant pause, Jay O’Connor did in fact apologize for past transgressions. And this gets right to the heart of why this appearance wasn't as fraught as Ralph Veldman's appearance five years ago because, at this point in history, Jay O’Connor has the luxury of being able to say that everything that was in the past was in the past.

He has the luxury of, and rightfully so, blaming most of everything that's gone down on David Ciccarelli. So, this was his opportunity to in effect say, well, that was then, this is now, and that's in large part what Jay O’Connor did.

Secondly, I give Jay credit for accepting Jay Michael's secret invitation to be part of the panel. It took a certain amount of guts to show up and engage with the community and that's a hell of a lot more than we ever got from Ciccarelli to my knowledge.

And that, after all, is a start.

Next, J. Michael asked me about my concerns for the platform and I told Jay that look, just as I said in my open letter, you and Rolf Veldman hold a unique position in this industry and I would like to see you both take a leadership position and that all it takes is to invest in a relationship with the voice actors on the backs of whom the business was built.

Brad Hyland called out voices for the so-called managed services jobs where often seemingly ridiculous portions of the budget go to Voices.com and not to the talent.

Brad called it horse shit and when Brad Hyland beats me to the cursing, you know he's adamant.

O’Connor said essentially that the typical managed services job goes like this: It's a client looking for a project produced in multiple languages or multiple accents and there's a lot of coordination that is required from the Voices.com project managers and staff.

And then he said something very interesting. He said that for all managed services jobs Voices project managers are required to enforce GVAA rates for talent, but he would not commit to enforcing GVAA rates for all jobs.

Jay, if you're watching this, this one move by itself would engender enough goodwill to, in my humble opinion, virtually erase all the ill will from the past transgressions of Ciccarelli and his regime.

Now, the biggest fireworks of the night are yet to come. If you needed any illustration of just how angry the voiceover community is after the treatment we’ve received by Ciccarelli et al, all you had to do was look to Marc Scott, who took the mic, cell phone in hand, and read off a casting notice on voices for a managed services job from February 26th, just days before the conference.

Now, I don't remember all the details, as I mentioned, but essentially this was a managed services job that was posted for a fraction of GVAA rates. And again, this is just days before the conference.

Marc also said that after the talent submitted their bid, they were contacted by the project manager from Voices.com and encouraged to lower their bid.

So not only was Voices.com not enforcing GVAA rates on managed services job as late as a couple of weeks before the conference, but they were in effect acting as the agent for the producer and still charging the 20 % of the job to the talent for that privilege.

And that, as I told Jay, is the especially galling part.

Our colleague Hugh Edwards of Gravy for the Brain then took the mic and asked Jay directly if Voices still plans on forging ahead with the practice of triple dipping. That is, charging talent a subscription, charging 20 % of the job to talent, and also charging clients for managed services jobs.

Sometimes on some jobs, all three of those charges happen.

Sadly, O’Connor defended that practice and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Now, NAVA Vice President, Carin Gilfry, who was also on the panel, acknowledged that O'Connor has been meeting with NAVA and has met with NAVA several times and has listened to their concerns.

Now, if O’Connor does a portion, of what he says he's going to do, then we're light years ahead of where we ever were with David Ciccarelli at the helm of Voices.

So, the long and the short of it to me is this. I applaud Jay O’Connor for showing up and taking his lumps and engaging with the voiceover community. It's the start of a dialogue between Voices and the voiceover community that to me is long overdue.

Largely, O’Connor's stance was that yes, Voices does have some real significant issues to clean up and he has promised to look into those and to do that and to have a proactive dialogue with the voiceover community moving forward.

He's also promised at Carin Gilfry's urging that Voices has not to his knowledge, and never will use any audio files uploaded by talent to train AI voice models, to train artificial intelligence in any way. And thanks to Karin for getting a clear, declarative answer directly from Jay on that.

Look, did I agree with all of his answers? No, not even close.

Did I think he could have done more to engender goodwill amongst the voiceover community? Absolutely.

Do I trust him yet? Me? Personally? No, not yet.

But I also don't inherently distrust him because in fairness to him, he hasn't had time to accumulate a track record in either direction yet.

My stance personally is, let's just wait and see. We'll know in due time if Jay O’Connor will walk the walk.

And let's not forget, J. O’Connor's real title is interim CEO. I believe that Morgan Stanley has put him in charge to shore up the balance sheet of Voices.com as quickly as possible. so that Morgan Stanley can unload voices, sell it, and recoup as much of their investment as possible.

Regardless, like Rolf Veldman, we may not agree with every choice that Jay O’Connor makes. But like Rolf, if Jay does in fact commit to open, authentic dialogue between voices and the community and listens to our concerns, then that's not insignificant.

And if he cleans up the issues he says he's going to clean up, then that's going to be a solid start to rebuilding the trust with our community.

Look, as I said in my open letter video to Jay, we understand as voice actors that Jay O’Connor, Morgan Stanley, Voices.com has to operate as a profitable business. Nobody begrudges them that.

But I will beat this drum until the skin falls off… Jay, I urge you, and for that matter, Rolf Veldman, to take a position of leadership within the voiceover industry and more importantly, within the voiceover community.

Fight for all of us, Jay, for voice actors, for clients, and yes, for the platforms too, so that we can all be creative collaborators and business partners in this beautiful... art called voiceover and we can all prosper.

Now look, until and unless and maybe even if voices .com is ever privately held again, we as voice actors are never gonna get everything we want. Well guess what? That's life.

We can monitor, advocate, and stand up for our worth, our right to make a living and earn a solid wage and hold those who seek to undermine that accountable.

As always, thank you for the conversations we had at VO Atlanta that we have in the VO Community at large, for those here on YouTube and in the VOPro community. Again, the more we talk, the more we exchange information, the more we exchange ideas, the more we listen, the better, stronger industry we will have.

Thanks so much, and we'll see you back here again real soon.