I was reading an article today from Voiceover Herald with interest. (The link to it is at the end of this blog if you’d like to see it).
It was an interesting article, and in the main advocated choosing a professional voiceover person in order to create realistic characters for video games
However, I was sad to see that the section on the ‘freelance’ sites (I think we know which ones) refers only to potential quality issues. This isn’t the main issue – it is that artists are dropping their rates to exist on such sites at all.
This may appear to be in the interests of the client short term – but as it directly competes with those who charge a fair price for their work, it’s surely going to impact the reputation of the industry as a whole in the longer term. In my view clients with a tight budget will end up spending even less of it on the audio in favour of spending more on the imagery/video or other elements of their project.
“It becomes very difficult to revise your pricing once you’re stuck in it”
Of course the article needed to be balanced in its assessment of the options available – we can’t just ignore what’s going on. The challenge though is that people new to the industry could read it as advocating that it’s right to charge nothing or virtually nothing in favour of getting a testimonial. If you’ve been around even a little while, you know that’s not going to help in the longer term, in fact it becomes very difficult to revise your pricing once you’re stuck in it.
A difficult point to address agreed. I’m don’t think I’m a fan of an unofficial ‘union’ or membership/logo approach as I always think these things never get off the ground in the way it’s originally intended – however I could be convinced otherwise!
I am confident of my personal long term success by sticking to fair rates and providing quality work – however will this become an ‘outdated’ approach if there is a shift in the industry? To be clear, I don’t worry about poor quality work being offered at a low price; I don’t see that as a competition or risk. Also, this is not the view of a ‘Luddite’ – I love technology and enjoy an ever-evolving world and the challenges we are presented with.
I think I know where most of my colleagues stand on the pricing side of things – I’m keen to find out what you think? Are you concerned – do you think it will just ‘fizzle out’ ?
I guess I’m keen to see if there’s a general sentiment that it’s appropriate to challenge how these sites are impacting things, is peer-pressure appropriate and will it be enough?
You can reply directly on this blog if you’d like to in the ‘leave a reply’ section at the top or using the contact form below.
I’d be really interested to hear your views!
Thank you for reading, and have a GREAT day
Steve
To Hire or Not to Hire Professional Voice Actors for Video Games
steveoneillvoice 