In the current economic environment, most people are looking for a way to make an easy buck. A lot of people light on the idea that voice over is a great way to do exactly that. In fact, over the past couple of months, I have received several emails from people asking me how they can break into the voice over market.
When considering voice over as the means to an "easy buck", the following question arises:
Can voice over really earn you a lot of money?
Well, voice over can be lucrative or not. Just like any other job , it depends on the following factors:
- How skilled you are at the profession
If you just pick up a microphone and speak, you're not going to get far.
Voice over is not "simple" or "obvious". You have to learn the trade: how to speak into a microphone, avoid creating undesireable audio artifacts, enunciate, interpret copy, act, pace a script correctly, and more. If you record yourself, you have to learn how to edit audio and mix it as needed, record cleanly, manage the acoustics in your studio, etc.
If you do not know the profession, it will be audible in your work. Like any other profession, voice over requires training, practice, and a natural aptitude.
- The amount of effort you put into your work
Would you go back to a barber who left some of your hair cut to the wrong length? Likewise, in voice over, if you do a sloppy job, you will not get return clients. You have to put in enough time to do a good job.
A lot of people think that it takes maximum 5 minutes to prepare 2 minutes of audio. They are wrong.
You have to communicate with the client (often several times before starting a job), negotiate with the client (if your prices are negotiable), read the script over, interpret the script, record it (even a few times, so as to have several options to choose from), edit the audio, mix in music (if required), synch the audio's timing to a video (if required), send the audio to the client for approval, possibly rerecord the audio in part or in whole (if you made mistakes, you do this for free), and communicate with the client some more.
In addition, it takes a lot of time and effort to promote your business, plus you may have business leads that take up your time yet go nowhere.
- The amount of work you get
Whether hiring an electrician, a computer technician, or a photographer for a wedding, customers usually prefer to go with the tried and true business, rather than risk going with a newcomer to the field. This puts newcomers at a disadvantage.
You may have an excellent movie trailer voice, but movie trailers are generally dominated by a select few. Or you may do an excellent Sesame Street Elmo voice, but so long as the original voice over talent is still alive and working, you will not get any work doing your Elmo voice.
If you're not getting any work, it does not matter how much the job pays. You're still earning zero.
Statistics show that only a minority of voice talents manage to make a full time salary off their voice work.
In summary, voice over may pay more per hour than some jobs, but that does not mean that it will make you rich. Just like other jobs, you need to get training, put in an effort, and actually get work.
The Bottom Line: A nice buck, but not necessarily an easy one.
Victoria Feinerman is a professional voice talent based in Israel.
She specializes in technical and medical voice overs, and has extensive experience in news and telephone systems.
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