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VOICE ACTING Hey, Wait A Minute: Could THIS Be Voice-Over's Golden Age? February 18, 2019  By J. Michael CollinsVoice Actor & Coach If your only source of information about the voice-over industry is
social media, you might think the business is a barren wasteland of
scarce opportunities, declining rates, and predators hiding behind every
corner ready to pounce on the pocketbooks of talent who don't know any
better. Like the service industry maxim that people only share bad
experiences, online voice-over culture often seems to be the same, with
the most active conversations trending negative by a large margin. Fortunately, while the buzz churn of Facebook and others serves a
purpose to educate and warn new and less-experienced talent about the
traps they potentially face, it does not fully represent today's
marketplace realities. Indeed, the more I take stock of the industry at large, the more I'm
convinced we may actually be living in the golden age of voice-over and
not even realize it. WAS A CLOSED MARKET There's no question that broadcast rates have taken a substantial hit
over the past decade. With the march of technology giving buyers access
to talent across the world, this was inevitable. Yet contrary to a lot of
the debate out there, strong broadcast rates were not so much a function
of union protections as they were the result of the talent pool being
both limited in number and geographically concentrated in Los Angeles
and New York in particular. Before the turn of the century, voice-over as
a lucrative career was not really a viable option outside of those
markets. Sure, quality local and regional talent could often scratch
together a low six-figure income working on commercials, imaging,
affiliate work, promo, and TV narration in their area, but if you wanted
to do the highly visible and bigger-budget work it was pretty much LA
or NYC. A few hundred great talent did the vast majority of this work,
working through a network of a dozen or so agency players - about the
same number of prestige casting directors - and almost always recording
at professional storefront studios, because that was physically how it
had to be done. It was a closed market that could easily dictate prices
to the buyer. INTERNET GAME CHANGER The internet changed all that. Remote connectivity, online casting,
the ability for local and regional agents to access national jobs, and
the inevitable introduction of more quality talent to the competition
pool had a natural effect on supply and demand, tilting the playing
field away from the gatekeepers who could preserve rates by controlling
access to talented voice actors. The market spoke. The good news is that the supply of quality voice actors isn't
endless. Like singing, screen/stage acting, or professional athletics,
inherent talent is essential. Ultimately, not that many people have it,
and even fewer combine it with business sense. There's a reason why if
you hang around VO social media long enough you'll realize it's mostly
the same people from platform to platform: There aren't that many of us. To be sure, there are far more working voice actors today than before
the advent of online casting and easy remote connectivity. Nevertheless, it's more likely a matter of thousands than tens of
thousands, and certainly not the silly numbers you hear quoted by
doomsayers and online casting sites that count every half-completed
profile ever filled out as one of their "800,000 talent." BROADCAST RATES HIT FLOOR The practical effect of the still limited supply is that while the
market has corrected broadcast rates to reflect current supply/demand
balance, that correction is now largely over. Broadcast rates have hit a
floor, and talent have done an exceptional job of educating themselves
on how to negotiate, further plugging any remaining holes in the dam. When every single new casting platform trying to break in and re-disrupt
the industry is making hardcore pledges to preserve rates and put
talent interests on an even playing field with buyers, we know something
has changed. No, things aren't going back to the way they were for
commercial work, but we have reached an inflection point. From here
forward, commercial rates are likely to see a very slow climb. Not back
to the heights of 20years ago, but there's nowhere to go but up. NEW NICHES EXPLODING The good news is that while there's probably somewhat less actual TV
and radio commercial work out there today than in the past (especially
as terrestrial radio has gone into deep decline), Internet commercials,
pre-roll and the like are exploding. The internet IS TV, which is
something we need to remind our clients every time we negotiate web ad
rates. The future of commercial work is more volume-oriented, but there
will be more volume than ever before thanks to the internet. Lost in the apoplexy over broadcast rates is the steady climb in
non-broadcast narration rates. In a strong economy, industrials that
were fetching $400 a few years ago are now often garnering $750 and even
$1,000 without companies batting an eyelash, especially if you are
working directly with the end user. This work is beyond abundant. Highly
skilled talent can essentially book it at will when following
auditioning and marketing best practices. There is virtually no end to
it. E-LEARNING SPENDING SOARS Moreover, the global E-Learning industry is about to hit an annual
spend equal to the Department of Defense. Common talent rates are simply
staggering as content creators, corporations, and institutions struggle
to find voice actors who can capably and competently narrate tens of
thousands of words with compelling delivery technique and rapid turn
times. Hit a voice-over conference these days and you'll find it's the
E-Learning superstars buying more drinks than the commercial heroes of
yesterday. Animation remains a bastion of the old guard, largely LA, largely
union, and with potentially major league paydays as the world class
acting chops needed to make it in that genre are not in massive supply. And video games continue to be a compelling choice for talent both in
and outside of LA, offering prestige roles which can boost the
visibility and demand of talent who book them. QUANTITY OF WORK GROWING There was recently a snarky social media thread questioning why any
successful talent would ever coach other talent, "to book their work." The bottom line is that there has never been more work out there than
there is today. And while there have also never been more talent
chasing it, the quantity of work is increasing faster than the size of
the talent pool. Talent who are legitimately qualified to coach aren't
teaching anyone to book their work; they can quite literally have as
much work as they want. It's hanging from trees for those who know how
to master the use of their time. NEW INCOME LEVEL Right now, the historical elite of the industry are suffering. The
day of the seven-figure voice actor, outside of animation, is nearly at
an end. That's the new normal. But the day of the low- to mid- six-figure
voice actor is upon us. There are hundreds if not thousands of them now.
This never used to exist outside of the coastal markets. Our industry
is almost unique in the modern economy in that the concentration of
wealth is shifting from the one percent to the middle and upper-middle
earners. Anywhere else in society this would be enthusiastically
celebrated at this point in time. It's time we started to see the blue sky behind the many silver linings in the changes our craft has experienced. --------------------------- ABOUT J. MICHAEL In more than 20 years as a professional voice actor, J. Michael has worked with many of the worlds largest companies, brands, sports leagues and organizations - in both the classic agency-based VO world and online casting marketplace, where he has become a leading authority. He is also recognized as an industry-leading voice-over coach and award-winning demo producer. J. Michael is a 16-time Voice Arts Award winner as voice actor, demo producer, script writer and casting director. And his voice-over students have booked hundreds of commercials by applying J. Michael's character-based approach to conversational VO. Email: jmichael@jmcvoiceover.com Web: www.jmcvoiceover.com CLICK HERE FOR MORE HELPFUL VOICE-OVER CAREER ARTICLES |
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Having merrily (self)sustained a full time VO career for over ten years, thinking very much along the same lines as you in this article, I actually started to despair a little reading all the Facebook VO group doom and gloom.
I shall continue thinking more Golden Age-type thoughts and spend less time lurking in the less positive dunegeons of the 'book.