Is voice123 a scam, or misleading people?

Colin Campbell · Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007, 21:39 (GMT) Post subject:

Me too. Got the channel on already. Man some people have money.

Debbie Deutsch · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 1338

DINA

I like what you said and I second that sentiment!!

Hail Wilson · **Voice Talent** Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 78

This topic is now a dead horse. I was on the phone today with Ms. Texeira, the customer relations manager with V123. I told her I was not going to seek discontinuing my membership. All the feedback and coaching from co-talents offered in the forum is worth the fee alone. Next time I start to hyperventilate like I did yesterday, I'll take an asprin.
Ya'll are great!! And Agent 99, I'm watching your program tonight on HGTV.
Regards,
Hail Very Happy

Colin Campbell · Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007, 23:46 (GMT) Post subject:

It's kind of funny. We bitch and bitch on here about lousy leads and low ball clients all the time but when someone really confronts 123 as a scam, we all ban together and defend our beloved venue.

It's kind of like... "I can pick on my kid brother but if someone else does, they have to deal with ME."

Freddie, you should study this thread. It gives you some positives among the many negatives you hear all the time.

Last thing.... VO is hard period, not becuase of scams but because EVERYBODY and their brother think they can and want to be a voice over artist.

Caryn Clark · **Voice Talent** Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 1000

I know this is a "dead" post, but I just read it and Hail, man, I just can't believe you would get your panties in a wad so quickly. Whew. I just gotta say...

Glad you've seen the light.

Ok, voice123 isn't perfect, but it definitely works for some of us.

Fact is, no one's gonna hand you a job, whether it's here, or another voice site, or with an agent. You have to work for it. Practice, study, train, practice, audition, audition, audition.... forever.

And, for God's sake, if you do get the info on the seeker (here or on TOS), do NOT call people and ask them if they rec'd your demo. That'll be a sure way to end your voice over career quickly.

Best of luck to you.

Freddie Molina · Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007, 16:28 (GMT) Post subject:

David Houston · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007, 08:04 (GMT) Post subject:

Folks are probably still hoping this thread drops way down on the list. Sorry. Weighing in one last time.

I have to say, while I don't advocate hounding a client who posts here on V123, granting them total anonymity through the entire process just doesn't sit well with me. There are similar successful talent-pool sites who actually require clients to give their name, and that requirement has caused no problems that I can detect. (As previously pointed out, any talent who foolishly dogs a client after-the-fact is committing career seppuku anyway.)

There. Off my rickety soapbox for today.

Garth Collins

I belong to several services like Voice123 and have been around for quite a while. I can tell you with certainty that Voice123 is by far the best out there both in terms of quality and quantity of leads. 10 von 10

Dave Cohen · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007, 20:35 (GMT) Post subject: is it a scam?

I have been responding to Voice 123 auditions for over 2 years.
I think it is mathematically impossible that I could do so many (over 1800) and land so few (under 10). Especially when I do national commercials; am the voice of several national radio and TV shows; act in major movies and TV shows; do broadcasts on major networks, etc.

My beef is not with the money but the time invested and the fact that I never have heard any of the auditions actually appear on the air as bonafide commercials! I want to know who is getting the gigs! I have told the Voice 123 execs I'd be willing to pay more to be part of an exclusive "professionals" category.

I used to receive inquiries without even auditioning, but that has disappeared since SmartCast. So I too am wondering how legit is Voice 123.

Rodney Stenborg · **Voice Talent** Joined: 05 May 2007 Posts: 3

Once in a while us older folks have to rely on our adult children for advice. My son who lives in Brooklyn and is active as a theater technician gave me some solid advice about submitting VO demos. Since we are not under the protection of AFTRA or SAG, the client, if he or she chooses, could use our demos at their free will without any compensation going to the voice talent. Does this happen with Voice123? How are we protected? My son's advice was not to submit the entire proposed script, only a part of it. The client usually can get a pretty good impression just from a few words of the submitted voice over. I think it makes sense. I don't know whether this topic has been used as a survey, but I feel every now and then Voice123 needs to survey its voice talent with regard to the following question:

Robert Jadah · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 2627

Believe me, I share your pain, Dave. We're very much in the same leaky boat.

But it bears repeating again and again that the voice sites are kettles of fish very different from the semi-organized chaotic world of agents, casting directors, auditions, and gigs.

There are talents here who win four and five jobs per week.

Yet such established voices as Frank Frederick, JS Gilbert, Philip Banks and scores of others disdain the site audition process, likely never having attained those results.

The reasons, methinks, are plenty. Firstly, probably only some 40% of Seekers actually select from the site at which they're trawling. It is instructive that neither Voices nor V123 have - or will - post the percentage of jobs won by their talents.
Secondly, the vast majority of Seekers at these sites are amateur seekers. Going in, they have little more than a general idea of what exactly they are looking for. Instead, they enjoy their Eureka moment when somebody strikes their soft spot; be it somebody who sounds a bit like their boss, their hero, the talent who did it last time, or that voice they so loved on Oscar Meyer wiener ads in the 70's.

Thirdly, there are probably 300 truly talented voicers at V123: extraordinarily gifted voice actors. You only have to listen in at the Leads and Reads forum for a week to hear a tiny percentage of this cadre.
Once I reach the audition hall in the real world, I need win out over only thirty or forty competitors.

I have no doubt that V123 is absolutely legit.
But in a convoluted, twisted, Bizarro-world, seismically different way.

Voice On!

David Oxford · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 505

David Oxford · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 505