Dave, I appreciate your open & honest - and very accurate too - viewpoint. You're dead-on right. The industry has & is changing. Most things are never static for too long." Can and will we adapt?" is the question.

Dave, you've echoed what I discovered, nearly five years ago, when I got back into the business, after a lengthy sabbatical. Although some disputed it, I've claimed that those talents who live in those giant media locales, especially LA/Hollywood, have a decided advantage over talents like me, who live in a smaller market, Denver, CO, specifically.

The agency who took me on, originally, was based in SoCal. I received numbers of auditions from my agent, until he got seriously ill. Then, only when I badgered them, did someone have the decency to e-mail me back and tell me all out-of-town talents will take a backseat to local talent, which I took to mean I was getting thrown on the scrap-heap.

Does it piss me off, when I put forth the effort to produce high-quality work? You bet! And, what gets me even more frustrated is hearing from VO professionals who tell me that home studios are going to replace big studios, eventually. Then, I hear from other pros who say if you have a home studio and you don't live in the big market towns, you'll always get scraps of work and be satisfied that you get 'em.

Okay, that's my vent for the day. Thanks for the platform to do that!

Being a boy who grew up in rural NE Minnesota (46 mi from the King of VO, Don Lafontaine) and then moved to Wichita, Los Angeles, New Mexico, AZ and finally San Francisco, I see the bigger challenge as one of "socialization." If you live in Carrizozo, NM, I don't care how expensive your studio or how great you sound, the "big boys" are still going to view you as a "hick" who might sound good, but you're never going to be part of "the gang." Not in any big numbers anyway. But you can still make a fine living! You just won't hit the "big time" because you're not available for "beers with the boys" three times a week. IMHO. =)

Hello Dave,

Great article!! You bring things up that all of us "out of the loop" voice talent deal with on a daily basis. There is plenty of work out there aside from the "elitist" markets of New York, LA, and Chicago. I don't know if this situation will change anytime soon, but it would be nice if it did. I reside in East Tennessee. I'm not "from" Tennessee, and my "voice" clarifies this fact. But I'm out of the loop when it comes to booking projects in the elitist markets. I don't worry about not landing projects in those particular areas of the country. Fortunately, I get plenty of work in other parts of the country to keep me busy. I'm also non-union and will always remain that way.

So, I say to all who are concerned about not booking with the elitists, don't be concerned about it. There is plenty of work elsewhere. You have the entire world as your marketplace, thanks to the Internet.

BP Smyth, Narrator
www.bpsmythvoice.com