The Ultimate Guide To Breaking Into The Voice Acting Industry in 2021

Imagine this….everything you hear in the media has a voice attached to it, and these voices often don’t mean anything personal to the listener.

In most cases, the listener does not know the name or the face behind the dulcet tones they are listening to, and they will only know the voice attached to the advert, the brand or even the e-book they are listening to.

The voice-over industry is a powerful yet highly competitive industry, and this is something that can make inspiring voice-over actors fall at the first hurdles.

This is no reflection on their talent as a voice-over artist, far from it, but their nonstarting in the industry as a whole may come from a reduced understanding of how to break through the industry to enable their talents to start paying their worth!

So, here we have some of the best advice to enable you to begin to walk the path of becoming a successful voice-over artist in your own right.

Consider a coach

Voice over coaches or voice acting coaches are often individuals that have been in the voice acting industry for a long time.

Their veteran status means they have gathered all of the precious information on how the industry works and the elements that create a great voice over artist.

Voice over coaches also know the technical aspects of voice and can guide and critique your current talents and sharpen and train them to a recognised standard within the voice acting industry.

They are not there to change you! They. Are there to train the skills you already have to an industry-recognised standard.

Create & Sharpen your demo reel

Every great voice actor should have a superb demo reel of a wide variety of voice skills.

A demo reel should show a potential collaborator how versatile you are and how adaptable you are to various styles of speaking and scenarios.

A demo reel should be your showcase! It should demonstrate a variety of different adaptabilities, such as:

A luxury spot

A funny spot

A serious or instructional spot

A conversational, everyday product spot

A professional spot

A quick brand tag spot

A relatable/family product spot.

Of course, this list can be tailored to the area of voice acting you wish to pursue, but as a general rule, the broader range of differentials you can achieve, the more you will show how versatile you can be.

As a rule, demo reels should not exceed 1 minute 23 seconds in total, and each demo within that should aim to be around 12 seconds in duration.

Agents or Self Marketing?

This can be a bone of conversation between professionals, but with the world changing, anything anywhere can get you heard.

So the question is, do you use an agent, or do you self promote?

And the answer can be either or both!

Voice over agents will take skilled artists onto their books and promote you to potential clients and projects.

These agents will do most of the legwork for you when it comes to finding jobs for you and your particular skills, and they certainly have the contacts to get you in front of a casting director.

Self-promotion and self-marketing can be slightly trickier as there will be a lot of scouting, searching and promoting that you will have to conduct yourself! But that’s not necessarily a bad thing!

For instance, many freelancer platforms are in operation today. You can easily obtain voice acting jobs, with British Male Voice Over Artist being one of the most popular categories on those platforms.

The choice between the two options will need to be researched for the pros and cons, but ultimately, the right choice will be the one that fits you the best.

Auditions

Auditioning for the jobs you want to do can be a fruitful task, and we don’t just mean financial!

When you can accept that not every audition will result in a paid job, you will learn to love the auditioning process. It can bring about so much more than money, such as:

Trying different styles and scenarios to test your voice.

You will start to create a bank of audition pieces that you can use.

You can challenge your abilities out of your comfort zone.

You may find a style that you are exceptionally good at that might not have crossed your mind.

You make connections with influential people who will hear your voice.

The general rule with auditions is that you should audition, audition, audition! Whether you believe the job is for you or not is actually a moot point, as it is incredibly beneficial just to get your voice far and wide.

If you don’t get a job from your auditions, that’s ok! The point is, your voice has been heard, and they may remember you in the future for other projects.

Be a master of your skills.

       It’s important to note here that you will need to be the master of your own voice               constantly.

       You will need to learn voice technicalities from pitch and tone to pace and energy,               and knowing things like this will make your jobs incredibly successful.

       To know what your voice can do to match the specifications of an audition piece will           automatically set you apart from the people who don’t know anything about the                 technical aspects of a voice.

       A quick thing to mention here is that the equipment you use for all of your audio                 recordings can be the make or break of an audition!

       Audio recording equipment doesn’t have to cost a fortune, and as a start, it can be             simplistic and easy to use until you gain more confidence in your skills, and by that             time, you will have jobs that can pay for upgraded equipment!

All in all, a career in voice acting can be incredibly rewarding, and it can bring you such a wide variety of jobs and projects.

Learning along the way is essential, and you can gain so much inspiration and information from professional veterans that have been in the business for a long time!

Take your time, put yourself out there in many ways; even if you don’t think the job is for you, you should still audition for it; you never know what may come from it and how good you might be!

Never stop learning. Keep sharpening your skills and honing your craft, and you will go far, with lots of varied experience behind you, to enable you to land the life-changing voice role, where people will know your name, face and voice.