top of page

The Big Voiceover Survey! Why Data is Important to Understanding the VO Industry.



Guest blogger! Guest blogger!

That's right! My dear friend and fabulous voice actor Carin Gilfry is here to talk about the 2022 Voiceover Survey. Take it away, Carin...!


Data is the most powerful tool we have. We need data to make change. For years, people gave their anecdotal evidence of how the voice over industry operates. You’d see people say, “80% of the work out there is non-union!” But was that really true? How many people are making a full living in VO? What percentage of voice actors are union, non-union, or Fi-Core? Are people really making money on pay to play sites? Through direct marketing? Through agents?


These are some of the questions we set out to answer with the State of Voiceover in 2021 Survey. And we did! Last year we ended up with 1244 responses to our big VO Survey, and the results were amazing. You can check them out here: www.voiceoversurvey.com


Some interesting highlights from 2021 include:

-Almost 53% of voice actors live outside of LA and NYC

-Only 2.5% of voice actors DO NOT have a home studio

-Commercials are the most common genre of VO, followed by the non-broadcast genres of corporate narration, e-Learning, and corporate explainers.

-48% of voice actors earned less than $8000 from voiceover in 2020

-Around 25% of all voice actors earned more than $40,000 in 2020

And so much more.


So… we decided to do it again!


What is different about the 2022 VO Survey? Lots! First, we narrowed down the income brackets. We included an option which says “I did not earn income from voiceover in this year,” and separated the lower-earning options so we can get more specific. We also really wanted to figure out if people are doing VO full-time, part-time, or as a hobby. So, we added that too. We took away the questions about building home studios during the pandemic. (We crossed that bridge sometime in June of 2020! We’re not going back!) But to figure out how much in-person recording has started happening again, we included a question about how many in-studio sessions voice actors have been to in the last 12 months. To figure out how voice actors are spending money on their business, we included questions about what business-related services and applications they use. The rest of the questions on the 2022 Survey are largely the same as the 2021 Survey, so we can compare answers from year to year.


We hope these insights will help voice actors far and wide!


Tip Of the Week

  • Take the State of the VO Industry in 2022 Survey

  • Send it to your voiceover friends and ask them to tell their voiceover friends

  • Send it to your clients and ask them to send it to the voice actors on their roster

  • Send it to your agents and ask them to send it to the voice actors on their roster


Quote of the Week
 

Join me at an upcoming event

Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix!


 

Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos

Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos!

 

Paid Links

Grab Studio Gear



VO Strategist Book Club

This week's recommendation: Before You Quit Your Job! To quote the blurb: Before You Quit Your Job asks: Do you have a million-dollar idea? Are you afraid of failing? Are you tired of making other people rich? Are you sick of taking order from your boss? Are you tired of working hard and not getting ahead? Are you ready to take a leap of faith and change your life?


Learn about the B-I Triangle and the 8 Integrities of a Business—before you quit your job!





Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

 

Keep Going - Work with Me

Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together!


Tom Dheere

Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.



Comments


bottom of page