I recall when I was doing more casting, it was often “first through the door”, meaning the agency creatives would grab the first talent agency’s cassette that got there and listen to the 10 or 12 people and make notes and then wind up never having time to listen to the other agency tapes.

And sometimes, if you had the misfortune of being on the tape after a heavy hitter, the clients might talk right over your audition (discussing the other guy’s audition)

Tape was good because even though you could fast forward it, most tended to listen to it linearly. (It was also harder for clients to “steal” taped auditions for pitches)

Nowadays when most of the auditions are posted to Voicebank or an internal talent agency server and the client has to download your audition, they tend to pick and choose, often from the same small group of recognized names – makes it hard for talent who ahave been pigeoneholed or for new talent.

But the craziest thing I have seen is when the client passes on local talent in S.F. and sends the casting to L.A., where the S.F. talent now reads via their L.A. agent again and this time gets booked. (it happens a lot)

My tip for increasing your booking ratio, marry Alex Bogusky or some other good Creative Director or at least go work for the agency.