From my pal Curtis:
Hey Juan, Do you know how I can upload my vo demo to my fb profile? Or is it best to link from another page to fb?So here's the deal Curtis, we've never had great solutions for hosting audio online. You'd think in a world of streaming HD video, there's be SOME place we could semi-permanently host high quality streaming audio files like Youtube.
Recently, services like SoundCloud have become popular, and their bandwidth caps aren't horrible if you're focusing on something like your demos. The nice thing about SoundCloud is that it not only offers a handy place to upload the demo, and tools to embed the audio file on other sites, but it also makes it pretty easy to share your demo with a variety or services and social networks.
The tricky thing about directing traffic to web pages and social networking is you'll find people have very little patience. There's about zero attention span online. If someone finds you through Facebook they might not follow you to another link posted on your profile. Vice-versa if someone finds your web site, and you try to ship them off to Facebook or another service.
I'd recommend trying to make sure the basics of what you do are well represented individually on all services you use. If I find you on Facebook, I should be able to easily find your contact info, and listen to your demo, on Facebook. Ditto your own personal site.But Facebook doesn't allow audio uploads do they? Well this is where all these streaming video sites might actually come in handy. Come up with a static image, a brand logo, something with your name on it, contact info, and convert that demo to a video file where it can live on Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook Video, etc.
Between SoundCloud and streaming video, you should have plenty of options for making sure that your marketing materials are easily accessible regardless of how someone might find you online.
For the rest of my VO audience, what services have you utilized for sharing your demo? Have I missed anything which might help people share high quality audio? Drop me a comment below!
I host my main audio demos on my own site, using a player that works on all platforms (Mac, PC, Mobile, etc).
ReplyDeleteI also use YouTube for any video demos, and have copies of my vo demos on SoundCloud, VoiceBank, and a number of online profiles.
Most of those also have links back to my main site (JoeActor.com) if the listener wants more info.
The key is, however they find you, make sure they can contact you after they listen!
www.JoeActor.com ;-)
My suggestion for using SoundCloud (or any resource, really) as a host is to be SURE to enable the DOWNLOAD preferences so producers can actually pull down the files to their computer for their clients to listen to. I find lots of VO talent forget this step - and they may end up not being considered for a gig.
ReplyDeleteNIce point Tim. I honestly didn't know you COULD download things off of SoundCloud LOL.
DeleteI just saw this today. (Looking for other tech advice of yours. }:>) I use Wordpress to host my demo. It's a small cost every year, along with my domain (florsanroman.com), but worth it to me. I don't feel I can do much if people are impatient - if they ask me for the demo I either send the MP3 or the very long, ugly URL for the stream. If they wander over to my site, say from Twitter, they'll see the page and, if interested, click. A couple people have done that and let me know later. }:>
ReplyDeleteI use Studio Cogicom. It's services are relaible and effective.
ReplyDeleteHaving a great time reading your blog post. you know what your readers want. Keep posting.
ReplyDelete