This week, my friend and VOpreneur Marc Scott posted this YouTube video:
Is he right?
To properly frame this conversation, we need to determine which voice actors we’re talking about.
Who Are These Voice Actors?
There is a good chunk of aspiring voice actor who should be part of this conversation but can’t because they don’t know we exist. These are the people who jumped on Google, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, etc. and typed in something like "how to become a voice actor".
They discovered free or lowball casting sites and got trained by predatory coaches & demo producers. They have little money and no critical thinking skills so they just dove in, drove rates down, and enabled the behavior of sketchy casting sites and scummy voice seekers.
These aspiring voice actors also have little or no performance training. They don’t understand the craft of voice acting, the process of character development, the journey of emotional exploration, etc. That means their performances tend to be shallow with no true depth or level of connection with their audience or themselves.
And there they wallow.
This illustrates one of many problems with the voiceover industry right now. There is no barrier to entry. As long as home recording technology remains relatively cheap, social media sites exist, online search engines exist, and predatory scumbags exist, this strata of voice actors will continue to damage the voiceover industry. That is, unless AI sucks up most of the entry-level work. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen.
Hmm, maybe we should be rooting for AI…
What About Successful Voice Actors?
Do online casting sites hate the veteran voice actors who pay for the top-tier subscriptions, have learned how to feed the algorithms of v123, Fiverr, and Upwork, and make five or six figures every year via these sites?
No. I think casting sites LOVE these people. They can point to them and say, “See? You CAN make a great living on our casting site!”
Am I one of those people? Yup.
Are other voice actors like me a part of this conversation? Nope. They're too busy booking.
So Who Does Online Casting Sites Actually Hate?
If you are reading this blog, you’re part of an ecosystem who knows that something exists beyond Fiverr, Upwork, Casting Call Club, Twitter, Discord, and Backstage. You have likely gotten some training, perhaps had a demo or two produced, maybe worked with me & Marc, are on some of the voiceover-related social media groups, possibly have attended a voiceover conference, and could be repped by one or more low to mid-tier agents.
If online casting sites hate any group of voice actors, it's you folks. You have spent too much time, money, and effort to quit online casting sites but aren't sure what else to do since nothing else works.
Marc says you have agency to walk away from online casting sites. Do you?
What Are Your Options?
If Marc is right, if online casting sites truly hate you and you walk away from them, where will you go?
Will you focus on getting more and better Representation?
Will you increase your Self-Marketing efforts? Send out even more cold emails? Post even more on social media than you do now?
The same day Marc posted his YouTube video, our esteemed colleague J. Michael Collins posted an equally fascinating entry. JMC says there are too many white, 35-65 year-old voice actors out there who mostly sound the same and he is 100% correct. Authentic, inclusive, diverse casting is a long-overdue market correction that the voiceover industry is currently experiencing. This means there are less & less roster & casting opportunities for us honkies.
The REAL Answer
So, if you are of the aforementioned demographic, struggle on casting sites, can’t get on a higher-tier agency roster, and your marketing emails & social media posts go mostly unengaged, what should you do?
The answer is simple but extremely difficult:
Be a better storyteller.
Get better at the art of voice acting. Improve your chances of booking voiceover work via online casting sites or your agents or your marketed-to potential clients by submitting more engaging, emotive auditions. Muscle through AI and the algorithms and the bottom-feeders by being a damn good voice actor.
Get training in stage acting, on-camera acting, improvisational acting, opera, or stand-up comedy. Allow those teachings to inform your voiceover narration. Allow them to make you a more confident and less desperate voice actor. This will separate you from the rest of the pack and future-proof your voiceover business from getting swallowed up by AI.
My Apologies
I’m sorry if my blog, Marc’s video, and JMC’s blog have not been fun for you. They are not meant to be. They are meant to educate and empower you to make thoughtful, informed decisions about how to move your voiceover business forward.
Take control of your voiceover career! Don’t let any casting site, rep, or self-marketing strategy steal your agency. And like both Marc and JMC said: quit whining online! Stop doom-scrolling on social media! Ignore the noise! Take your voiceover career by the reins and make your dreams come true!
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Through VO Strategist, Tom's provided voiceover business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.
Great stuff here too Tom! I think there are a lot of people with some great raw talent who have not been properly trained, and they fall prey to algorithms and sleazy voice buyers or demo mill types... Every Business or job has its hurdles, and everyone owes it to themselves to get proper mentorship and training and also remembering that this is not a get rich quick gig.