I received an email the other day about VO Demo Safe. Truth be told, it was a site I had never heard of, though I learned it’s been around for least a few months now. Regardless, I figured that if it was new to me, it might be new to others as well.
For that reason I reached out to the sites founder, Bob Taylor, to find out a little bit more about this new service available to voice talents.
5 Questions With Bob Taylor
1) Tell me a bit about your background and how it’s lead you to create a site like this.
VO Demo Safe was created originally for me for personal use. Not as formally of course as it appears now, but functional nevertheless.
Over the past year, I have been very actively seeking out new clients, and with any new client of course there is an inital uncertainty about reliabilty, reputation and trust.
I also work with clients who work as agents for customers looking for audio production. Many times thay have to have their customers approve the reads. In both of these cases, I’m asked to provide audio for approval or acceptance prior to being paid. Having a way to protect my investment using audio watermarks has always seemed like a good idea, but it involved enough extra time and effort to always be somewhat burdensome.
Then there was the question of how to deliver the watermarked file.
So, I decided to design a way to be able to upload unprotected audio to a site, have it automatically watermarked and even password protected if desired to assure the client of added confidentiality and then be able to “release” that same audio track unprotected to the client when payment is made or an agreement has been reached.
2) Why VO Demo Safe? What sets it apart from Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud sites or simple emails?
If you just want to put audio out there, and let the client take it, then those are good options.
if you want more control over your hard-earned product and be able to show it off without giving it away, then VO Demo Safe is the only site that we know of that gives voice professionals posting, watermarking and delivery all in one site with just one upload.
3) Tell me about the plans / pricing structure and storage / bandwidth usage or limits.
Right now we are strictly MP3 based and there is currently no restrictions on file-size or usage.
We are only charging $5 per month for unlimited usage. No plans to change that in the foreseeable future.
4) Is the site exclusively for audio? Or can it be used to exchange contracts, NDA’s, invoices, etc?
I’ve had some thoughts shared on this topic, with other VO’s and we are thinking about such expansion.
As stated above, just MP3 sharing is the purpose at this time.
5) What sort of backups are in place to ease the minds of talents worried about losing files?
VO’s should not place 1-off copies of their work on our site. It is not for archiving and not promoted as such. We take reasonable steps to backup our site on a regular schedule, however should something unexpected happen, users should expect they might be asked to re-post their demos.
VO Demo Safe
I’d like to thank Bob for taking the time to answer some questions, and hopefully it’s helped you learn a little bit more about this unique service he’s offering.
If you’re interested in finding out more visit http://vodemosafe.com
QUESTION: How are you currently sharing and delivering your audio with clients?
