London’s Voices.com Expands Platform to Unionized Media Artists
Voices.com made their mark in the voice-over industry last year, securing a multi-million dollar investment and acquiring one of its largest American competitors.
The London-based company is once again expanding its stronghold in the voice-over market—an industry pegged at $4.4 billion annually—by offering access to Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA members for short.
The American labour union represents roughly 160,000 members, ranging from actors and recording artists to broadcast journalists and program hosts. The move opens up access to well-known celebrities in addition to the non-unionized professional freelance talent currently hosted on the platform.
Through Voices.com, clients can search for and hire voice-over talent for a wide-range of projects, including animated videos, video games and ebooks.
“For the competitive realities of the modern producer, Voices.com has become the solution that will see the 100-year-old voice-over industry meeting 21st-century demands,” said David Ciccarelli, CEO of Voices.com.
In August, Voices.com acquired California-based Voicebank.net but the online casting platform continued to operate as its own standalone site. As of February 1, both services will run under the Voices.com banner, a merger that bolsters the company’s position as the largest global online marketplace for voice actors and audio production services.
“With the two platforms coming together, everything a producer may want to complete a voice-over project is available on one site, including union or non-union voice actors, access to talent speaking over 100 languages and dialects, curated lists of custom auditions and end-to-end project support,” said Ciccarelli.
Last July, Voices.com landed an $18-million investment from Morgan Stanley, the company’s first institutional capital since its 2005 founding. The flagship website is home to voice-over talent in 139 countries around the world.
