Thursday, September 20, 2012
Paying to Be On An Agency Web Site
A friend asked:
Is it industry standard now for an agent to charge a yearly web fee for having your profile up on their site?
No, is the short answer.
In some states such a thing is technically legal, but I am not sure why an actor would work with an agent that tries to make money off of actors instead of with actors. I suppose there may be cases where such a thing might make sense for an actor. It is far from standard operating procedure. I have a solution.
If a rep suggests you pay to be placed or featured on their site, you can pitch to them that they get the fee they are asking for in addition to the 10% standard commission when you book your first job each year. If they balk at that suggestion, it seems that they do not truly believe the web site profile will lead to work.
Remember that setting up a profile on a site like ActorsAccess (breakdown service's site for actors) is currently free, though they change for additional pictures and for video, and also for submissions. I am not sure why an actor would want to work with an agent that doesn't use sites that are more standard, like ActorsAccess, instead of their own possibly-never-actually-has-lead-to-bookings site.
Labels: agents, money, technology, trends
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this posted by David August at 11:53 PM 
# posted by 
Ivett Gabriella : 8:35 AM
I like your post and I am in agreement with you for my current market which is L.A.. However, my previous market was NC and my agent did charge a minimal fee to put our headshots up on their website. Here is how this might be favorable to your audience that is not in a major market. While I was in NC on my agents website I was chosen for many, many jobs just because the client saw my pic and resume on the website. In addition, I was chosen over and over again by previous clients because they remember my performance and saw my headshot again on my agents website. So, in conclusion there may be advantages for actors in smaller markets to pay a minimal fee.
# posted by : 11:28 AM
