For anyone not familiar with VoiceZam (@VoiceZam), it’s a subscription-based demo player that you can install and embed on your website. It includes some really nice features, such as the ability to list each track on your demo individually so that casting directors and the like can jump right to the type of spot they’re looking to cast as opposed to having to sit through your whole demo (and hope they like it enough to keep listening!). It also allows people to download each individual track or opt to download the entire demo. And it includes both a “Contacts” panel that allows you to share not only your personal contact info but also any and all of your agents, if applicable, as well as a social media aspect where people can “Like” and share your demo on Facebook.
The basic cost of the service is $8.95 a month, and that includes a personalized “Zam” link (i.e. YourName.VoiceZam.com) and the player itself (which is “skinnable,” meaning you can tweak and customize it to match your VO website/branding look and feel — although I’m not entirely sure just HOW much you can change the overall look of the player, beyond colors and fonts, especially if you’re not really comfortable with HTML and coding…meaning that if you really want to change the overall design of the player I’m not sure how much you can change THAT part.)
This $8.95 gets you an unlimited number of demos and tracks, so you can upload to your heart’s content!
They also offer a couple of add-on features for an additional cost, such as “Zamtistics,” which will track just how many people are playing your demos, and which individual tracks are getting the most plays, etc. That runs $4.95 a month. And for $29.95 they’ll actually upload a demo for you.
But this new marketing tool that they’ve just launched, called Straight Shot, is pretty interesting. Basically it allows you to generate an email signature with hyperlink buttons to each of your demos, so a producer/casting director can click on whichever category they’re interested in, and it takes them right to your VoiceZam player on your website and plays that demo. A pretty cool feature for your marketing plan!
Now, the even COOLER (and EASIER!) thing is that, according to CEO Bob Merkel, via an interview with Dave Courvoisier (@CourVO), is that there should soon be a VoiceZam WordPress plugin. How simple is that?! (And thanks, Dave, for the great interview and making us aware of this feature!)
Anyone interested in the VoiceZam service can take advantage of a special $5 credit by entering code “courvo” in the membership application form.
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