← A VO's Journey: Voiceover and more voice over
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- [00:00]
A
Hello.
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B
Hello.
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A
Hi, everyone. Welcome to V Journey Academy Live. My name is Anthony.
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No, it's vo daddio.
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Vo 10. Vo dadio.
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And I am your momzilla with momzilla.
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A
And we are crazy voice actors. This is vo's Journey. With your host, the incomparable Anthony Pica. It is so good to see everybody. If you are new just joining us or haven't had the chance to do so yet, please hit that like and subscribe button and hit that bell notification. So we go live. You know it.
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B
Yes.
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A
And what, what else do they. Gabby, what are we doing today?
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B
Well, it's Open Forum Friday, which means it's a chance for you to bring all your questions from any part of the voiceover universe or sphere and ask away. And we will talk about whatever is on your mind, whatever's plaguing you, whatever thing you want to bring up. And it might just inspire a more in depth discussion. Discussion later on in the lives.
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A
Absolutely.
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B
Yeah. And we're also going to tell you what's going on at VJ because, man, we got some cool stuff.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
Did we just double our numbers? Sort of. Is that like what happened? Kind of.
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A
So, yeah. So a wonderful, wonderful. We've had, you know, we talked about it a little yesterday, but yes, we've basically joined families with voiceover Angela and we are now all VOJ family. And so, yes, we have definitely grown, which is incredible.
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B
But we also don't want people to be afraid of that because it's amazing. What it's gonna mean is ultimately more discussions, more classes, more breakout opportunities, more chances for network.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
It's just like the family just got bigger. I mean, who doesn't love that?
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A
Absolutely. And I think that's the thing, you know, it gives us the opportunity to do more with each other and to have more attention for each other and everything. And I think that's what's really exciting for me as well and to build more relationships, you know. Cause that's in the end, that's what we are all about.
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B
Yeah. Well, and we started this year with, you know, an increased infrastructure. We've added a bunch of instructors like it couldn't. It's the perfect time. It really, really is the perfect time to have this influx of new people. And yeah, it's a great time to get involved. There's now different tiers that you can join. There's different price points. And you know, we, we always want to reiterate that we're here for whatever place you are in your voiceover journey. Yes. The majority of our people are just starting out, they're just getting going. Some are maybe, you know, second year folks inter. That sort of thing. But wherever you are, we're gonna meet you, not the other way around.
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A
Oh, absolutely. And you know, we. So I mean all, I mean, yes, all of that. 100, 150%. It's, it's very exciting. It's back to school time, right? So this is the perfect time to join and be a part of, you know, the next chapter in your journey, you know, And I think I can't think of a better way to do it than a family, a like minded family who is there for you as well. And, you know, we're thrilled about the growth of Academy voices. Right. Which is, you know, goes hand in hand with, with what we do. And, you know, it's, it's an opportunity for a lot of people to get their first job in a safe environment run by voice act. Run by us.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Who, you know, like it's. But it's us. There's no strange person. There's no person behind the, behind the curtain that you don't know who's there. You know, who's that one behind the curtain?
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B
But you know what, that is such a great point you're making because so often, look, voiceover, there's a lot of us. And it's a weird industry, right, because on one hand it seems like there's so many of us and then you really kind of get into it and you go, oh my God. It's really not. It's a relatively small community. We're just a loud community. Surprise, surprise. But something you often see in this business, right, is the coaches that kind of come out of nowhere. And we're always sort of like, who, who are you? Where did you come from? Like, what, what are your credentials? And, and it's so interesting because our group could not be more transparent. Every single one of our instructors, like, you know what their career looks like, you have an understanding of where their expertise out there promoting their services as a voice actor. The same as you.
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A
You know, that's a really, you know, it's very Frontline. That's so, that's so true. You brought that up. That is so true. I, I will say sometimes they go to places and I'm like, and, and not. And I'm not saying these people haven't had good careers, but I'm like, who's that?
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B
Yeah, there's, there's a lot of this like, who, who is it? And then you go to do some research and you're like, yeah, like, seems a little off. Off. And I mean, I'm not. I'm not talking about anyone in particular. I'm not, you know, but, like, I think just as a general, we have this really, really amazing group right now that, like, you can go to any social media and find all of our coaches. You can go and, you know, look up the kinds of projects that they're booking and what they've been doing and. And really get a sense of their career and how you can benefit from that.
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A
Yes, no, absolutely. So, I mean, I. So it is a wonderful time to be a part of our community. If you are interested, you know, you just gotta head over to aviosjourney.com and like Gabby said, we now have some different tiers that you can choose to be in, depending on where you are with and how much time you have and how deep dive you want to get into. Voiceover. We've got it for you. So that's really exciting.
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B
It is, it is. I've been like. I feel like I've been tapping the microphone, right? Like, going, ding, ding, ding. Like, we need this for a while.
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A
And you've been talking. Yes, You've been talking. We've been talking about it, but you've been talking about it for a year. I think it's been, like, a year.
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B
I think it's important we're recognizing that, again, not everybody's at the same place, and it's about more ways that we can accommodate the community, and. And that's really what's important, so that as you grow, VOJ grows with you.
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A
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, hey, guys. It's good to see everybody if you're just popping in or you're here. This is Open Forum Friday, so we love to answer any questions you might have. You might have questions about your daw. You might have questions. You might have questions about Veo's journey or becoming a member. You might have questions about getting a job, booking, any sort of thing. This is the time to ask. We are fully here to answer those questions. Yeah.
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B
Oh, and little preview we were talking about. So for next week, we've kind of got this tentative list going of some of the different problems that voice actors often deal with. Plosives, sibilance, mouth noise, breath control. I threw up. Speak in there, too, because that's. That's kind of a big one now. Maybe even vocal fry. Yeah. Like, we'd love to know the questions that you have about some of these issues or if you yourself are Dealing with any of them kind of helps us to. To know what we should be focusing on next week and how to direct that information. I think that, you know, we've all. I don't think there's any escaping them. Right? I mean, they're like. They're really, really common. And I sometimes feel like voice actors are like, oh, my God, I have the worst mouth noise in the world. And I'm like, no, no, it's not just you. This is.
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A
I mean, I think all of us. Right. I mean, I remember just. It was that, you know, that probably is for a long time in the beginning what you are, you know, after you have a job or what you're working that, like, just is the number one thing on your mind, you know, my mouth noise, breath. Do I need to get rid of the breath? Do I so and so said leave in the breath, so and so take out the breath. You know, can I be. Can it be quiet? Is there supposed to be room tone? Is there not supposed to be, you know, all the, you know, my siblings. Oh, I hate it. I hate every part of my voice. You might be going through that phase where you hate everything you hear from yourself.
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B
And you know what? The worst part about all of it when we. When we look at it from a. From. From above, is that every single one of those issues just pulls you out of the performance.
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Yes.
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It.
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Absolutely.
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It makes it so that you're so focused on the technical and, you know. Yeah, you're pulled out of the performance, your acting suffers. And so the good news is these things are all very, very, like, fixable, mitigatable. And once you get them under control, you just don't have to worry about it anymore.
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A
Oh, absolutely. And you don't. You. You're absolutely right. You. After a while when. When you get it all fixed, it just, you know, it. It. Well, you. You. And you still recognize when things need to be fixed, it's just not. It doesn't bother you like it did
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B
when you first started anymore. It doesn't have the same impact anymore. It just become. I liken it to, like, you go, oh, my shoe's untied.
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Like, right.
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Like, oh, I popped my pee. I guess I'll. I'll do that line again. You know, it's no big deal. Yeah.
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Right.
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Kind of deal with it.
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That's it. And I mean, that's absolutely. I mean, that's the whole thing. You just get used to it. So I think that's really. Okay. Let's see. Sarah Zilla, we have all these Zillow dueling Zillas.
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B
I know.
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Sarah Zilla for the Zillow. VO Daddio. I love it. I love nicknames. Can you. Oh, let me put it back up. Can you talk about cold reading versus script prep for like a commercial read? I've heard conflicting things about how much to prep versus just going for it. Ooh, good question. Yeah, well, I mean, I know both. Gabby could talk forever on this as well. So I'll just give my little take and then, Gabby, you give your take. So I'll take the path of when you first start out. I think it's a good idea, especially with coaching, to really take deep dives almost half practice wise in marking up your script, really looking at it from that analysis point of view and really go into it. Don't be afraid to it when you're first starting out. I would say as time goes on, it becomes more intuitive to you. You don't have to do as much like physical writing or physical things. Like, it's just because we're natural, because you have done it for a while. Do you know what I mean? And so it will. So if you're like me, I'm always thinking, you know, okay, logically speaking, how much is this? How much time will this take me? Is this, like, can I actually do enough to actually make enough money to live and all this stuff? Right? And you're like, wait a minute. If this takes me how many hours to do one 30 second script? Because I'm marking up. This is not realistic. Okay, well, the point is that, you know, you're getting. You're practicing now.
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Right?
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Right. So that was what I was saying. Gabby, if you want to. What do you think?
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I mean, I can't argue with that. The reality is we're like athletes in that we practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. So that day of, we just do, right? We don't need all of that excess marking it up and doing all those things because we've built up a sort of muscle memory there and we, what we're supposed to do. I, I know for me, I stopped like studying scripts a long time ago because inevitably, you know, I would get the script the night before from a client and they'd be like, oh, okay, here's your script. And I'd print it out and I'd like look it over a couple times and look it over again that morning. And then like six minutes before the session, they're like, oh, updated script.
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Oh, yeah, the.
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So, yeah, I just stopped. I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. I might give it a glance or two, but ultimately I try to go in cold. I've also heard, especially again, this day and age, of, like, conversational, Conversational, conversational with commercials. A lot of casting directors believe that your best read is going to be, like, in the first couple of takes and that it just starts to devolve after that because you're overthinking it and you're trying to make it do more when they want it to sound a bit more rough around the edges.
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A
So, yeah, so we, you know, and it's also another way to reference that is called the illusion of the first time. So we're trying to, you know, and acting and stuff, too. You might practice something for a month, but when you go on stage, you're trying to make it seem like it's the first time you're doing it. Right. Cause it's, you know, so for us, the same thing can happen. Right. I mean, if you do something over and over and over and over again, it can start to, you know, feel like. Yes. You've been sitting here practicing this over and over again, and you're just saying. You just say it. Right? So. So, yeah, I think. But, yeah, all that. Yeah, that's a good question.
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Yeah.
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Good job. Let's see. Dylan says Isotope Mouth declicker is worth its weight in gold. Yes. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Dylan, you nailed it there. Let's see. Mark says hi, long time, first time, and season one, episode 200. I love how you put season one on a side note. Just, we're not going to devolve into another topic, I promise. But I don't know when to do season two. Like, it just. I'm always on season one. It will be forever season one. That'll be a running joke. Vo Daddio in season one.
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B
Oh, my God, that's so funny.
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A
Anyways, episode 284, the casting director episode you mentioned, sound floor impact important. How is the best way to identify. Does VOJ offer anything or offer something?
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So to identify your noise floor. Is that so?
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A
The cool thing is. So on a side note, the cool thing is. Yes, in a way. So. Yes. Well, okay, a bunch of things. So how is the best way to identify. So there's a very simple way that we all do it, at least. Or that I can. That I say to do it. All you have to do is go to your space, turn on your stuff, take a deep breath, hold your breath, press record for about five or 10 seconds. All right, 10 seconds. If you Want a double thing and then, you know, stop the record, breathe and then listen back. And that's your noise floor. That's your noise floor. Now will that change during the day? Probably depending on where you are, you know, louder or something that. But that's a way to change your nose floor. And then the other thing to say is that. Or to listen what your noise floor. We do audio. Yeah, you can, we do audio checks like, you know, like you could send it to us and as well. And we'll take a listen and identify things. We can even help you with your audio and we have our tech class and stuff like that too, so that helps. Yeah, so. Yeah. So both of those. That Gabby, any other thing to add to that?
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B
Just that I think depending on your recording software, you know, just kind of have a rough idea of what parameters are. Most people would say that, you know, a noise floor below 50 is going to be acceptable. A noise floor above 50, it's going to start getting dicey, you know, but obviously the lower the noise floor the better. But also make sure your levels are good because sometimes we get people who try to do a noise floor test and they're levels are like non existent.
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Right.
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And then when you bring that gain up, you get the true noise floor. So absolutely.
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No, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's. You're right. You're right. Good point.
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B
Janine said, what is the best and or fastest way to get rid of early morning voice? Oh, I love that. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it's to sing even if you can't, you know. Right. Even if you're bad at it. It doesn't matter. Singing is gonna kind of lose singing in the shower. Yeah, there's a lot of fun. Like some people tell you to blow bubbles into a glass or just to, you know, kind of do trills or, you know, anything like that. But yes, it's just using it, it's getting it warmed up. Literally. There's, there's loads of different kinds.
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A
Oh, absolutely. And then. Right. I was just gonna say the same thing in our acting classes too. I mean that's what we teach is, is warm up. So you know, you can have a warm up. And I love my, my warmups personally involve all of what Gabby said. All of it. Right. From the lips to the, to the trills to the, to the vocal and then singing. I love it all. You know what I mean? And also a hot shower also really like get you in, you know that, that helps in the morning. Right. Because it loosens up or they Gets all that kind of gets you awake and in your voice. But. Yeah, no, I know what you mean. Sometimes you wake up. Yeah. And you're like, I'm just waking up to the voiceover. This is the best product ever. Buy this and you'll be happy, you know.
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B
But I also. That's something I ask my voice actors a lot. I'm like, hey, know yourself. Like, when is your voice that it's best? Right? Like, when's like prime time. Because that's when you really want to focus on your auditions and sessions. You know, you don't want to wait till too late in the day when you're starting to get fatigued and you don't want it to be too early when. Yes. You potentially sound a bit like Darth Vader.
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A
Oh, I remember. I remember too, when I was first starting out and I worked, you know, I couldn't do. I couldn't record until 10 o' clock at night. And so I would go to like 10 to 10 to 3 in the morning. Right. And I would. I never forget. And if y' all listen to the first episode of the podcast, Mark was awesome. And bring up podcast, you'll know. I mean, it was literally like, hello, welcome to the. And at the time I thought I was being really spry and upbeat. And then I realized later on down the road where I'd be like, hello. I'm like, I'm awake. This is so different. But you know, at like one in the morning, you're like, this is as good as you're gonna get.
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B
You know, I mean, daddy. Oh no.
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A
It's bad. It was bad. But yeah. So yes, there's a bunch of. The ACX analyze plugin does also tell you that your noise floor and stuff. Absolutely. Let's see. Tech class. Yes. Yes. That above 50, below 50 range. Yes or no? I've been a hobbyist for years, so. So I know this is, it's. It seems counterintuitive the numbering system. And I'll be honest with you, there is a history there. But why that why we came up with negative. I, you know, I don't know why, but the. It's down, right? So like 50 under would be 51, 52. Right. To 60 to 70. That's going lower. Right. That's going with a lower noise. Higher noise would be getting closer the other way. Like 40, 30, 20. Yep. So yeah, let's see.
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B
We got time for one more. Yeah. Kat said if you get a code to listen to a co member's audio book, do you Do a written review or just a star rating? That's a fun question.
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A
I mean, that's a great question. You know, if you like it, write a review. There's nothing wrong with that. That's. You're not doing anything wrong. You know, there's nothing. So what people have talked about being shunned upon is when people at a certain period of time would pay people, right? They would, they would get into these services and they would just pay like, you know, 150 bucks and then suddenly you'd have 10 reviews and no one even listened to it. No one, no one did anything like that. But that's actually what the codes are for. The codes are for you to get to listen to it and to leave a review. That's what they actually, that's what the audible Spotify. Any of them who. Any of the people who give you the. Do the codes and stuff. That's what it's for. So you're doing everything right? Absolutely.
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B
Can any narrator use that? How does that work?
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A
Yeah, basically, yes. Well, depending on where you go and who you're. So like through Academy voices, I typically like to use Spotify. So we have a hundred different. So every narrator for their audiobook, or however many they do, they have 100 different codes they can give away for free. So you can listen to the audiobook for free.
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B
Wow.
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A
And leave a rating and a review.
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B
That's cool.
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A
Yeah, yeah.
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B
And they're. They're only good for a one time use. I'm guessing that's why there's a hundred.
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A
Yes, yes. They're only good for one. Yes, they're only good for one use. Yeah, yeah, it's fantastic. And you can't. Yeah, so you can't. It's only for one. You. It's only for one person. One. One device. So like they can't just one person 50 times, but you know, you had a hundred of them, so it's quite a bit.
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B
Yeah, that's.
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A
Yeah, it's fantastic. And, and by the way, that really helps a lot like the, the, the, the narrator, but it also helps get the book. You know, the more reviews people are going to want it like they get, you know, it's a good review, they're going to like it. And, and if it's a good star rating, it's gonna boost it just like anything else. Right. So it gets more traction for the. That, that's the point of doing it. Right. Is to help, you know, if it was good.
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B
Right.
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A
Or you liked it, you know, and you leave a Review and a star rating. That helps, right? It helps boost the it. That's great. So Mark, does have, does VOJ start on first of the month or is it one month sub for date of sign up? Yes, any day. Whenever you sign up, it's just from that date. So you can sign up at any time, any place.
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B
Instant join.
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A
Yes. And you're, you're on. You're ready to go as soon as you. Yeah, as soon as you sign up. Well, it was a good Friday.
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B
It was a great Friday.
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A
Yes.
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B
What's not to love?
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A
Yes. Thank you all so much for joining us today. Make sure. Oh, George, got a question in right at the end. All right. We're a sucker for questions. When you give a Spotify free listen link to a person, I assume they must have a Spotify account already. I would assume they're gonna have to sign up for the free. They don't have to have a paid one, but they gotta sign up for, you know, the. They got to be able to sign in. I think, I think I could be completely wrong about that. Do you know what I mean? So I. That's a good point.
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B
I had to check do. But you know, they might be able to use like a free preview or free trial of it.
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A
No, absolutely. Charlie Chad, Audible does royalty share non exclusive for 25 to share with author and narrator. Correct. So, so great question, Jeanette. So actually with Academy Voices we publish to about 40 different retail platforms including Audible. But to do that, right? We do that, right? We do a non exclusive agreement with audible. So it's 25% instead of the normal 45%. Yes. They kind of rob us, however, with that. They do not give codes, so it's very difficult to get codes with them or non exclusive agreements. They like the exclusive agreements. But I'll be honest with you, because of the amount of people on Audible, it's good to be on Audible. But the difference of that 15%, unless you're gonna have some worldwide bestseller that is just going to, you know, change your Life ever. That 15% is not worth you not being on the 39 or 40 other retailers. Right. Like Spotable. Spot. Spotable. Spotable. That's a new.
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B
We made a new platform.
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A
Spotify, you know, Apple Books, Nook, Google Play, all these different. And on the end, on top of that, all the libraries, I mean the libraries are an incredible place to make money with your audiobooks. And if you exclusive, if you sign exclusive with Audible now mind you, you might not have that chance because it's not your you know you don't have the rights to the book.
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B
Right.
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A
You know what I mean? So. But with what we do at Academy Voices, you know, it's me, you, us. It's just us. It's us and you. I mean, it's no one else, so. Well, unless we're working with an author. Well, then, of course, the author as well.
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B
Right.
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A
Well, anywho, great. Boy, we got some good questions in there.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Thank you guys so much. It was wonderful seeing you. Have a wonderful Friday. Right?
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B
We'll be here Monday.
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A
Good weekend. We'll see you Monday. We've got good topics. Goodbye, everyone. Goodbye. Goodbye.