- The fine print that locks your voice away forever
- How AI voice deals strip away future earnings
- Why SAG-AFTRA and other bodies are pushing back
- The long-term cost of a short-term payday
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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?
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Get started.
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Welcome Hi Hi Hi Hello everyone!
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To the Pro Audio Suite These guys are
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With Tech the VO Stars George Witton Founder
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Darren Robbo Robertson and Global Voice Andrew Peters
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Thanks to Triboo Austrian Audio Making Passion Heard
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Here we go!
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And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite Thanks
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Don't forget the code T-R-I-P
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$200 US off your Tribooth Now, AI Topic
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of the year Topic of the Topic of
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the decade Topic of the century You know,
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century really It's a wild beast that's on
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the run Ah, it's crazy More and more
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difficult to haul in, unfortunately But you came
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across something One of your mates sent you
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a request An audition request And the contract
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or the brief is a little bit odd
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Just wow I mean, go back to last
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week, right?
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What we were talking about SAG-AFTRA and
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their contracts and all that sort of stuff
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Here's your reason why No names, no pact
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drill But there's a clause in this contract
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that says Just quickly The overview of the
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contract is basically that you sign up your
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voice to this product And that's all that's
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restricted to So they can only use it
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for this product But this is the line
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that made me go, what the It says
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By participating, the voice selected will grant the
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brand perpetual, irrevocable and unrestricted rights to use,
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modify and reproduce the AI voice exclusively for
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the two specified products How much are they
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paying?
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Two and a half grand US for a
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voice in perpetuity that you can never get
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back Yeah That's just madness You know, the
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crazy thing is Someone will do it Yeah,
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they will And that's the sad part And
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I think to put last week's episode with
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SAG-AFTRA about SAG-AFTRA and their contracts
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in perspective This is why Yeah This is
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why they're putting their foot down and demanding
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that stuff Because that's just, that's our line
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It really is That's just, in all fairness
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That's almost abuse That's them recognizing that there
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is someone out there who'll go, what the,
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I'll take the two and a half Knowing
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that they're doing the wrong thing, surely Yeah,
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as George and Robert are not with us
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for this episode I will use one of
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Robert's lines And that is, it's theft And
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it is theft It is, I agree Yeah,
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it's playing on the mentality that someone out
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there's going I've been trying and trying to
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get voiceover work for however long and you
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know I'm not getting the amount of work
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I am Someone's offering me two and a
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half grand I'll just take it, thank you
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very much Yeah, the trouble is of course
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Once that thing is being used, that's it
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It's never, you're never going to get it
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back Whatever that product is They're never going
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to use you again Because they've already got
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you So that's it, two and a half
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grand And that could be for decades And
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what if that product goes on to like,
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you know Be another iPhone or something like
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that, you know It's like, you've just signed
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your life away Seriously I think there's also
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another line in there about being used for
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other products Was there something in there?
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It says, the intended usage of the files
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is to create an external facing AI voice
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clone That is limited to two of the
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client's product lines As well as any future
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products, services or extensions derived from Or related
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to these two product lines Yeah, there you
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go That's the sketchy bit as well That's
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right So I mean, you know So if
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they come up with an iPhone and then
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they go We're going to make an iPod
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You know, or we're going to make some,
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you know, eye earbuds or whatever Then all
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of a sudden they've got your voice there
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as well Unless you want to go to
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court and fight it Which you're never going
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to have the money to do Or find
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them or whatever else to even do that
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If you're taking two and a half grand
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for an AI voice in perpetuity You certainly
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haven't got the funds to take anyone to
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court Well, yeah, there you go, exactly So
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I mean, do you reckon it's intentional?
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I mean, I kind of feel like it
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is I kind of feel like these guys
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are just praying now They're just going, well,
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you know, we've seen in the past that
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people will just do this So let's just
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chuck it out there and see what we
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catch Well, the interesting thing is if you
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look at the current rates The way it
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works is if you get paid per cut
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down So if you do a 30-second
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read and they go Look, we're going to
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do a 15-second cut down And we're
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going to do a 10-second cut down
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You'll get three fees That's how it works
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Yeah, that's right And that's for the usage
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of that product of that commercial Three cuts
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wherever it's being used, blah, blah, blah This
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one, there is no like if we do
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a cut down or we do whatever There's
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no extra fee, that's it You're done, you're
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cooked All right, well, here you go So
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I've just noticed this The recording fee is
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two and a half thousand US dollars Which
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equates to $250 per finished hour of audio
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That's finished hour So obviously you're doing some
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editing in there as well So you're probably
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getting about 50 bucks an hour Yeah, to
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do this, to sign it away forever Yeah,
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yeah You're not just eat your voice To
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sign your voice away forever Yeah, because they
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want it all edited It all done, no
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processing But a full edit, deep breath, blah,
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blah, blah And of course they say there's
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no exclusivity expected But the problem is, you
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know Once you're on this product, whatever it
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is No one else is going to hire
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you for the same product Because you're already
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on that Yeah, and usually if it's a
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big product, they'll ask Yeah, that's right So
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they've got exclusivity built in anyway They don't
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need to say it's exclusive Exactly God, seriously
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It's unbelievable, isn't it?
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It's just out of control It is out
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of control And hopefully with Nava and all
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the other bodies around the world Who are
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combating AI and trying to get us Some
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kind of protection against AI Yeah Hopefully they
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can stop it But I've got a horrid
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feeling Yeah It ain't gonna happen Well, this
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was sent to me by this mate of
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mine Because he was sort of saying, what's
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your thoughts?
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And what I said to him was, mate,
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you've got no comeback And you've basically sold
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yourself out At the beginning of your career,
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you've sold something out That you might go,
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what the hell did I do that for
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in five years from now Or something, you
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know Particularly when you're looking at If you're
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watching YouTube and you get those ads pop
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up That you know it's an AI voice
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Really awful ads Oh yeah, God, there's many
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of those at the moment That could be
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the person who takes this job Yeah, that's
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right It's heard globally Yeah, everywhere That really
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annoying voice on TikTok That American whatever, it's
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everywhere It's on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram
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I can't think of it Hopefully it was
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like a mash-up One of those ones
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where AI mashes it up If that guy
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does exist and is trying to get other
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work He's screwed royally Yeah, if you're everywhere
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Yeah, because he will forever be that voice
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You know, it's crazy Please, look, I know
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it You know, I understand how tempting it
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is I mean, God, especially if you're in
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Australia Two and a half grand US is
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tempting You know, that's close to five grand
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Aussie You know, and for some people that
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may be For some people who sort of
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do voiceover as a second gig That may
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be tempting But just think about what you're
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signing away Yeah Really, please do I mean,
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I get it I know times are tough
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But is five grand really worth the rest
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of your career?
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I don't think so I don't think so
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Short-term fix for long-term pain Absolutely
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