Voiceover Industry

Feels crowded out there, doesn’t it.

In an age where work-from-home has become the rule instead of the exception, where we are experiencing the Great Resignation of people from jobs that treat and pay them poorly, and where on-camera and theater actors went more than a year without consistent work, the voiceover industry seems like the refuge of choice for many looking for a new source of income. Heck, even John McEnroe has gotten in on the trend….kind of.

With voiceover schools and coaches popping up like cicadas after a two-decade slumber, new aspirants are flooding into the field like never before.

By definition, that means there’s less pie for those who are already in the game, right? And those newbies? Good luck!

Well, there’s no doubt that the industry is as competitive as ever, but like with most things in life, there’s more to the story than a simple equation of more people equals less opportunity.

Voiceover is not taxi-driving. With respect to the folks at your local yellow cab company, anyone can learn how to drive and become familiar with their surroundings. With GPS, that last part doesn’t really even matter much anymore, does it? Driving a taxi is honest and hard work, but what it doesn’t require is inherent talent. A spark of creative genius and an actor’s soul is hardly a necessity. Voiceover, however, is a much different beast.

I’d guess that there are probably several hundred thousand people in North America calling themselves voice actors. Sounds like it would be pretty hard to stand out, right? But how many of these people are actually working? Chances are it’s no more than ten thousand, and out of those, maybe only a thousand or two earning anything that looks like a decent living. Indeed, it’s no surprise that when we hear major TV commercials, listen to great storytelling on documentaries, watch our favorite cartoons or play our favorite video games, the voices we are hearing are often the same few dozen people that many of us in the industry have come to know quite well over the years.

This isn’t because it’s a closed club or an old-boy network…..it is because talent and determination rise to the top.

The bottom line is that there are more people trying to do this job than ever before, but in reality it’s one in fifty or fewer that have the requisite skill to make it happen, and of those only one in five who have the business acumen to fulfill their potential. In some ways it’s like the professional poker craze of 15-20 years ago. Millions tried their hand at it, but watch the World Series of Poker and guess what, it’s still the same few dozen sharks and a handful of rising stars at the final tables.

In voiceover, what was true five years ago, ten years ago, and fifteen year ago remains true today: If you have the talent, the drive, the technical savvy and the business sense to make a go of a voiceover career, you may not get rich, but chances are you won’t go hungry either. Phil Ivey isn’t worried about the other people at the table. He’s gonna play his hand, and most of the time, he’s gonna win.

If you are a voice actor who makes any substantial portion of your income from online casting such as Voice123 or Voices.com, it’s time for you to get on Fiverr.

Buried the lede there, didn’t I?

Has JMC gone off his meds, you ask? No. Not today at least. And let me be very clear……I am NOT advocating the use of Fiverr by professional talent. I do not presume to judge anyone who earns money doing voiceovers on Fiverr or other low-budget platforms. I’m not so arrogant as to believe I can put myself in their shoes and understand their circumstances. It’s not a platform that I find appealing professionally or personally, and therefore I don’t partake, but to each their own.

However, if you are a professional talent earning professional industry-standard rates on the major pay-to-play sites, the acquisition of Voice123 by Backstage demands that you learn how to use Fiverr at your earliest convenience.

If you have been paying attention over the last two years, you’ll have noticed significant changes made to the functionality of Voice123 and Voices.com. Voice123 has had a complete makeover and has begun to incorporate more and more features designed to drive not just traffic, but engagement. From rating and ranking systems to endorsements to direct booking features and an incunabular escrow system, the changes to Voice123 are designed to create more touchpoints to keep buyers and VOs on the platform longer, all of which can potentially be monetized over time.

Voices.com has also made engagement-driven changes and has stepped out front in adding additional voiceover-adjacent services to its offerings to buyers.

These changes are only the very beginnings of the evolution of both of these platforms to become larger multi-service marketplaces based on the Fiverr model.

Why would they do this? Simple. It’s all about the Benjamins.

Fiverr has a market capitalization of $7.8 billion. Billion. With a B.

Now, to be fair, voiceover is but one component of the traffic on Fiverr, which offers a wide array of freelance services often at bargain-basement prices. However, if you add up all of the other P2Ps, including Voices and Voice123, combine them, and multiply the traffic by ten, that’s how much voiceover work is touching Fiverr every day. They are a billion-dollar company with a national-level advertising budget that dwarfs the tens of thousands that Voice123 and Voices can spend. Yes, the vast majority of that work is thirty-dollar-a-holler stuff that pros won’t touch, but that doesn’t matter to investors and big tech. Like a ride share service or food delivery app, the money is made on the churn. Every interaction with the platform is monetized, and it’s all about quantity, not quality. Private equity companies see engagement and transaction volume, and they see dollar signs.

Backstage recently acquired Mandy, a UK-based freelance platform that many voice actors and on-camera actors use, as well as several other freelance platforms that are less well-known among VOs. By adding Voice123, they are capturing as much potential traffic as their bankroll will allow. While these sites may continue to operate independently for a time, eventually you can expect them to evolve into a mega-platform that will be attractive as an acquisition target to even bigger fish like Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc…., and the model that has proven most successful from a sheer revenue and traffic standpoint in this regard is Fiverr.

Voices.com are no dummies either. Guided by relationships with their own institutional investors, they are positioning themselves for their own play into the services marketplace arena on a broader scale, and over time, you can expect that platform to evolve into something that functionally and cosmetically very much resembles Fiverr as well, as they look to capitalize on the freelance services industry’s most effective model.

Meanwhile, boutique platforms like bodalgo.com, VOPlanet, and CastVoices will continue to take more talent-centric approaches that focus on quality over quantity, because the owners of these platforms are industry people first and tech entrepreneurs second who are eager to make a profit, but not obsessed with becoming billionaires. As the coming years unfold, you will see a very stark divide emerge between sites that are smaller and focused on professional quality and professional rates, and massive conglomerates that acquire competitors and focus only on traffic regardless of the value of the transaction, (which is not to say they will be entirely bereft of quality work.)

The Evolution of Online Casting

What does all of this mean for the hundreds of serious pro-VOs who earn consistently from Voice123 and Voices.com? It means you need to start learning the mechanics of Fiverr. Not because you will be using that platform specifically as a place to generate work in the future, (though with a $7.8 billion dollar valuation, who knows, they might eventually just gobble up all the other players,) but because the platforms you are familiar with will start to look a lot more like Fiverr in the not too distant future. You need to learn the algorithmic principles that drive success on Fiverr, how those who use that platform manipulate the system to rank as highly as possible, what it looks like to be ranked, rated, and held at the mercy of the buyer, (having observed quite a few of the Fiverr-centric social media groups over the past two years out of curiosity, and also because I knew this evolution was coming, the unfortunate answer is it is rather soul-sucking,) and be prepared to adapt to the coming changes. Or, perhaps, begin to de-emphasize online casting sites as part of your business plan altogether and focus on the massive growth of search-based casting, direct marketing, and building stronger relationships with the agencies and other gatekeepers who are forward-thinking enough to remain viable.

People have long complained that online casting platforms make commodities of voice actors. While there has always been an element of truth to that, many VOs have been able to use these platforms in a manner that was both highly profitable and respectful of the greater industry at large. But as these sites evolve from mom and pop startups run by smiling Canadians and Colombians into mature corporations controlled by bigger and bigger masters, the future may look a lot more like running the rate race at the direction of the folks in the C-Suite. If you plan to be a part of that future, you need to learn how it works.

Being a small business owner is rewarding in many ways, but finding the motivation to keep doing the little things that make a business successful can be challenging. As voice actors, people see our big wins splashed across their TVs, tablets, and movie screens, yet the daily grind is invisible. Here are a few voiceover motivation tips to keep your head in the game when the weight of business building starts to feel heavy on your shoulders.

1.) Have a routine, and stick with it.

If your workday has an established flow, it’s easier to get into a rhythm and feel as though you are operating at a high level. My days start with a check of my email and social media, a shower, and breakfast. Them I’m into admin. I clear my inbox before anything else, starting with messages that simply require a reply. Next are client projects that can be cleared quickly. Commercials, short narrations, promos, etc…. get done in the early part of my day. Then I clear priority auditions from agents, management, and existing clients/rosters. After this I have my task list, which includes invoicing, handling requests from coaching and demo clients, demo scripting, and other admin. Now I’m several hours into my day, and live sessions will dominate the rest of my time, while I handle emails and urgent auditions in the short gaps between sessions. Short breaks for lunch and dinner, lather rinse repeat the next day. This clear and consistent process allows me to keep my deck clear and my inbox as close to zero as possible throughout the day, so things don’t pile up. It also allows me to ease in and out of my week and avoid working weekends as much as possible.

2.) Build in downtime.

I’m a grinder. I go hard in the middle of my week with few breaks, but I intentionally book Mondays and Fridays as light as possible, and I don’t work weekends. I cram 50+ hours into the middle of my week, but that allows a lot of planned 3 and 4-day weekends, and I plan several weeks throughout the year to simply book out. Golden handcuffs clients can interfere with this, but if you build in downtime and stick with it, you’ll have something to look forward to as you are in the whirlwind, which will keep you motivated.

3.) Your income starts at ZERO every month.

I track my numbers religiously, but the number that I keep front and center on my tracking sheet is how much I’ve earned this month. For newer talent, seeing that number climb will often motivate you sufficiently, but for established talent looking at the number you’ve earned so far versus your needs/expectations for monthly income based on past performance helps to gamify the work experience, and adds motivation. No matter how much you’ve earned so far in a given year, seeing a small number staring at you on the second or third….or tenth! of the month can be enough to keep the fire under your ass burning and motivate you not to rest on your laurels or the expectation of repeat business.

Leave your comments below and let us know how YOU stay motivated!

The voiceover industry isn’t perfect. It’s filled with the same little professional hassles and internal squabbles that any field faces. Some of these challenges are more important than others and don’t necessarily deserve to be dismissed. Nevertheless, as people who get to do this work professionally, we should always stop to count our blessings. To lead with gratitude works; it has always carried me past even the most gnawing VO irritations.

Here are a few things I’m grateful for:

Agents

I’m grateful to have great representation in numerous markets. I am not the least bothered if the occasional job is sent to me that I’m not a good fit for or if jobs are duplicated among multiple agencies. I have agents who curate auditions just for me and others who blast the firehose into my inbox. I book with both, and every single agent I have has proprietary work that I don’t see anywhere else.

I’m grateful to be on their rosters in times when agents are fighting harder than ever to uphold rates and feed their own families. The inconvenience of getting an audition for a Hungarian female with a falsetto voice is a small price for having access to quality paying work.

Newbies

I love new talent. I love their enthusiasm, their energy, and their excitement. Do they ask many of the same questions privately and in public forums? Sure. And I think it’s great. The fact that they consider our opinions as pros to having some value is rewarding after putting a quarter of a century into this business. Nothing will dampen the enthusiasm of new talent faster than being ridiculed for a dumb question or being shouted at to use the search tool instead. Noobs, ask away. I’m grateful you think I have advice worth listening to.

Conferences, All of Them

From VO Atlanta to VOcation to One Voice to MAVO and That’s Voiceover and all the others, I’m grateful that the organizers make it their mission to create places where industry colleagues can congregate and learn. The enthusiastic reception, even for virtual content in the middle of a pandemic, is a testament to the quality that these events offer and the need among our tight-knit community to come together, whether in person or remotely, to celebrate what we do.

And I’m grateful to all the presenters. The veteran sages we see at almost every event because their wisdom is too valuable not to have them on the marquee, and the new blood that continues to join the ranks of VO educators each year, offering fresh takes and diverse perspectives that dovetail with the changes taking place in our industry and society.

Clients

Even the demanding ones who dump volumes of work on you the day before vacation, or need just one more ABC, or want you to sound “like Don LaFontaine, but conversational.”

You pay our bills, and in the end, the customer is always right. I’m grateful you value my performance, and I’m dedicated to rewarding that confidence with quality.

The Competition

Otherwise known as our colleagues, for being brilliant at what you do in whatever part of the industry you work and for pushing me to be better at everything that I do so that I can keep up.

Family

For reminding me what this is all about. Not money, visibility, or even the satisfaction of a job well done…….but knowing that another day in the booth is another day that they are taken care of and seeing their smiles as a reward for a hard day’s work.

Gratitude.

It’s so tempting to find frustration in the things we do. To lash out at those who annoy us with their actions or sensibilities. To engage in call-out culture and clubby backbiting.

Leading with gratitude isn’t the easiest choice. But after more than twenty-five years, it is one big reason I wake up each morning pinching myself…..wondering if I really do still get to do this for another day.

If you follow VO discussion groups on social media, it’s hard to miss the urgent and sometimes panicked tone among VOs regarding the subject of AI or Artificial Intelligence voice over. There seems to be a pervasive fear that we are all about to be replaced….sent to the unemployment line by our new robot overlords…destined to go the way of the typewriter, VCRs, and my once-impressive head of hair.

Well, you may indeed go bald. There’s nothing I can do about that. But, I can give you reassurance that the age of AI voiceover may in fact be to the benefit of serious professional voice actors.

I understand the gut reaction of VOs to AI, but the fact is it’s an all-or-nothingburger that will either massively impact you or impact you virtually not at all, (and perhaps positively,) depending on how you are presenting yourself to the market.

Remember, AI can only ever be AS GOOD as we are. Never better. Cheaper, yes, but dynamically directable? Hardly.

That said, it is not to be dismissed, otherwise companies would not be pouring millions into the technology.

This technology is virtually guaranteed to ravage the lower end of the market. Clients buying on price generally don’t value quality, and they are going to FLOCK to AI because in their mind even $100 for a commercial VO or .03 per word for narration is TOO EXPENSIVE. If you are currently banging out ten jobs a day on Fiverr and making five figures from that and similar platforms you need to immediately prepare for a major disruption to your business model. Same for those relying on $100-$200 jobs on traditional P2P.

This technology will have little to no impact on the kind of work that goes through agents and managers, and limited impact on fair-rate work being hired by brand names or their intermediaries on P2P or through talent curation web search. These clients may occasionally be price sensitive, and don’t necessarily want to overpay, but price is a tertiary factor compared to quality.

Moreover, just as there are plenty of buyers of craft and luxury goods who will pay more for the personal touch and premium experience even when something from an assembly line can look and function almost as well, (think Rolex versus Timex,) so will there always be plenty of VO buyers who have the time, budget, and inclination to work with a real actor as opposed to an AI voice, and this will be a strong preference for them.

Some of these services are getting real voice actors to help them create AI versions of themselves, which will then be licensed and sold to third parties.

While licensing your voice for use by a third party is interesting, I think it will ultimately prove to be more noise than anything else for non-celebrity voice actors. I can see this paying something noticeable for a famous voice, but even for major VO-only players I don’t imagine this will ever amount to more than a few hundred bucks a month when you look at the actual dollar amounts these kinds of companies are talking about selling the end product for. Having been approached by a few of these ventures my analysis was that yes, there could be some small income from it, but hardly enough to justify the time to help them create an AI JMC, and also not worth the risk of illicit use.

Artificial Intelligence Voice Over Results

So, what will the end result of the arrival of the Borg be? Will we be assimilated?

Ultimately, I think this will lead to a needed rebalancing of the VO market to the benefit of pros, as there will soon no longer be any low-end of the market to undercut pro rates, that work having all been absorbed by AI and leaving buyers with the stark choice between cheap machines or paying humans what we are worth.

For hobbyists and lowballers, it will be a dark day indeed. For those dedicated to the craft, you may just find yourself more in demand than ever.

Of course, if you see Sarah Connonr……run!