13119: AudioTechnica Lowered A Price, And Now I’m Stuck

Raw transcript:

I just got finished doing uh an AUA and
ask us anything with Dan O’Day about the
ACX masterclass
and the uh the audible uh the gear that
we use the the way we produce things and
when we were talking about the gear
uh something struck me
about just how affordable it is now
to become an audiobook narrator almost
unbelievably affordable
let’s talk about this
in this episode of the vo Heroes podcast
so for those of you who are vo Heroes
Pros or our students or graduates of the
ACX master class or just clients of mine
that I I help get going with with voice
over you know that I love recommending
the at2020 USB plus and that I use that
microphone every single day for
everything that I do in the world of
voice over everything every single thing
that I do
and I talk about how inexpensive it is
versus really really expensive
microphones not so really expensive
microphones but more expensive
microphones
and another thing that I’ve talked about
in these courses kind of combining with
that is the notion of price versus value
and I I realized as I was talking with
Dan during the AUA
that there was this prime example of
exactly that notion of unbelievable
disconnection between price and value so
here it is
we have talked for years and years and
years about how when people say don’t
use a USB microphone for professional
voice over work 99 of the time they are
absolutely correct
you shouldn’t be using cheap ass awful
disgusting USB microphones
for
uh for professional voice over work
and we’ve given examples you know when
you find a microphone that costs 19 and
is made by some company in China that
has an unbelievably unpronounceable name
and it’s a headset microphone that’s
what they’re talking about when they’re
talking about usb microphones that you
shouldn’t use or a microphone that’s
like 49 bucks or 69 bucks that’s far
less expensive than the 150 that the
at2020 USB plus used to be
you can tell by the price that it’s not
the the right quality for what we need
as voice talent to do professional work
well now I’m stuck
and here’s why
in the latter part of the year in the
United States they do Black Friday sales
they usually do this around the world as
well
um Black Friday Cyber Monday it’s
holiday sales right
and Amazon is a huge retailer obviously
they do a lot of these sales and their
latest Black Friday sale was of the
at2020 USB Plus
and they didn’t have it on sale for
139 or 129 dollars
or 99 dollars
they had it on sale and it’s still on
sale as I record this because I just
went and grabbed the screenshot
they have it on sale for 69 dollars
and I confirmed with my contacts at
Audio Technica they haven’t changed
anything about how they build the
microphone they haven’t gone with
cheaper Electronics or a different you
know pickup or you know they haven’t
cheaped out on at all they’ve just
figured out how to sell it at a cheaper
price exactly the same microphone but
now now it’s a perfect example
of a disconnect between price and value
now it’s a sports car that’s on sale for
five thousand dollars as opposed to
fifty thousand dollars
now it’s hard for me to say yeah don’t
buy that other 69 microphone you know
the snowball or the Wii way or whatever
buy this 69 microphone and who knows how
long it’ll be on sale by the time you
watch this video it might not still be
on sale for 69 but it is right now as
I’m recording this and it is such an
interesting illustration of how your
mind will now go well wait a minute
how can this possibly be worth the money
how can this possibly be a quality
microphone that’s worth the money
take my word for it it is
I actually purchased one and put them
next to each other and listened to the
difference if there was one there wasn’t
once again Audio Technica being
brilliant you know at what they do this
is the microphone that I use still the
microphone that I use but now it happens
to be on an unbelievably low price sale
if you haven’t gotten it yet now is the
time to go get it for sure but and I’ll
give you a link in the in the show notes
but
it causes a problem
because now I have to say yeah I know
what I said about a disconnect between a
really really low price and the quality
but for now just ignore that and know
that this is what you should you but it
it illustrates this notion of we can’t
usually wrap our head around
a a a a
non-supported quality level if the price
isn’t there as well it’s the same thing
with my courses vo Heroes costs three
thousand dollars
the ACX master class costs 19.95 you can
get you know the asex masterclass on
sale in many cases either with a payment
plan or whatever it’s about 300 cheaper
we’ll pay the first 300 anyway the point
is it’s still a couple thousand dollars
or so
and people will write me back going are
you out of your mind charging that kind
of money for a course until they know
what
is actually in the course how big the
courses are how deep they go then it’s
like oh
okay I see now I understand but if you
don’t know what you’re getting for your
price right so now I’ve got this
conundrum with the at2020 how do I how
do I make people understand this I hope
that you understand it now
and I hope that if you are looking for
an inexpensive but really high quality
microphone you consider the at2020 it’s
what I use it’s what I love it’s awesome
um
but know that right now there’s a
disconnect between the cost which
doesn’t seem real and the quality which
doesn’t seem like it could possibly be
real both are and so I love that I have
the ability to bring this illustration
to you of price versus value and how
sometimes our brains just don’t
understand that let me know if you have
any questions about this or about
anything around the notion of keeping
your prices up at a rate that makes
sense for the level of quality that you
produce
or that when you’ve purchased things
there’s been maybe a disconnect between
the quality and the price or not or you
had to get more information anyway let
me know in the comments below and in the
comments below I mean on veoheros.com
where these episodes reside and the
conversation is lovely and calm and
polite and all that hit the like button
if you like this episode uh the
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uh voice Talent OR actors if you think
this might be useful in their careers
I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I thank
you so much for watching and for
listening and I will see you in the next
episode of the video Heroes podcast

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