Vox Talk

Welcome to VOX Talk and Happy 2008! This week there's so much to share with you and the voice over industry is just ripe with excitement.

The Loop

Unofficial NBC Nightly News Announcer Contest to Replace Michael Douglas

Our top story features some creative commotion at the audio'connell blog. Peter O'Connell was more than a little disappointed by the choice of voice actors NBC selected to replace the former announcer for the NBC Nightly News. Hollywood actor, Michael Douglas, just didn't cut the mustard according to many sources, so Peter decided to do something about the problem himself by opening an unofficial contest at his website to find a replacement announcer. With over sixty voice actors stepping up to the challenge, voting for the unofficial voice of the NBC Nightly News is now in full force.

Have you heard these voices yet? They're stiff competition for anybody, and the great news is, they are all professional voice actors. Also, an unidentified animation voice artist has sweetened the pot by donating a microphone... it just gets better, eh?

To listen to the contestants and vote, go to audioconnell.com/blog as linked from the VOX Talk show notes.

Voice Over New Year's Resolutions Announced

While we're talking about contests, last month, voice over coaches Julie Williams and Marc Cashman invited me to take part in a contest they were putting together calling for voice actors to submit their voice acting new year's resolutions in exchange for the opportunity to win some cool prizes including an hour of telecoaching from each instructor and a one-year Premium membership to Voices.com among other treats. After three dozen plus submissions, a winner was selected based upon their creativity and actionable goals. To keep you from suffering any further suspense, the winner of the Voice Over New Year's Resolutions Contest is September Day Leach! Here she is now reciting her winning new year's resolutions.

Harry Shearer Ponders The Donald's SAGiness

In closing, Harry Shearer, one of the voice actors on The Simpsons, is a bit suspicious as to the SAGiness of a certain Donald Trump, yes, The Donald, not to be confused with The Don. At any rate, Donald Trump's appearance on David Letterman's show is giving Harry reason to suspect that real estate mogul Donald Trump isn't being as straight as he could be about his status with the Screen Actors' Guild. Shearer speculates that if Donald were not a member of SAG, which sources say he isn't, as a supposed non-member, Trump would have easily crossed the picket line to be Letterman’s first guest had the Writers Guild of America not reached an agreement with Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants. Is Trump being disingenuous about his SAG membership?

Have your say at VoiceOverTimes.com

The Biz

In the Biz, I've got some great news to share with you. Before the big hurrah went off in Times Square, CEO David Ciccarelli of Voices.com released the annual State of the Voice Over Industry report as compiled by Voices.com.

The report is a treasure trove of market research that relates directly to an increase in voice over work for voice actors as well as identifies key niche markets that are fueling the boom. If you haven't picked up your copy yet, you can download it here in the VOX Talk show notes or on the VOX Daily blog.

Some really important trends to keep your eyes and ears out for are anything to do with wireless technologies, podcasting and audiobooks. Audiobooks are hot, coming in at an industry valuation of 2 Billion dollars! According to Blackstone Audio president Craig Black, the audiobook market will go from 4000 audiobooks per year to a whopping 24000 over the next four years! If you don't have an audiobook narration demo yet, consider that audiobook publishing companies are looking for voices of all ages, types and timbres.

Audiobooks are likely the most significant area of growth, due much in part to the domestication of MP3 players. Did you know that 12.3 million U.S. households will be listening to podcasts by the end of the decade?

Voice over isn't just for cartoons or commercials, you know! Other applications with an increasing demand for voice overs are GPS systems, videogames, wireless technologies and more.

Voice over has always been present, but 2008 promises to bring it to the forefront. Even the Knight Rider series is being revamped with a soap opera star cast and a steamy KITT car voice actor, Canadian comedic actor, Will Arnett.

So, if you've been wondering how you should be spending the opening days of the new year, download the State of the Voice Over Industry report and get cracking on your marketing plan.

VOX Box

This week, I was touched to receive a piece of audio feedback from Sanjo Ogunseye of Nigeria, a faithful listener of the podcast. Let me take a moment now to air Sanjo's message.

I can't say how much it means to me and to members of the team to hear from you! Thank you very much Sanjo for sending me your recorded thoughts. I look forward to hearing from more of you, too. If you send in your message, I'll air it here on the podcast. One of the perks is that you get a link to your website! If that's an incentive for you, you can reach me at stephanie@voices.com.

Closing

Thank you for listening to our show this week and for staying subscribed. If this was the first time you have listened to the show, you can subscribe for free to VOX Talk in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory. One last thing before we go - check out the Voice Over Experts podcast and listen to a new episode featuring Frank Frederick - it's a gold mine for niche marketing!

The link to visit is http://podcasts.voices.com/voiceoverexperts/

That's all for now! See you next week :)