Voice Acting Career: Here’s an Amazing Guide For 2023

Starting a career in voice acting industry can be a great decision if you have real passion and love to play with your voice through mimicking and imitation.

Do you know that the global voice acting industry is worth more than $4 Billion?

If you’re a business owner who’s looking to hire professional voice actors, visit this voice over work marketplace.

Jusy with a little training, you can learn how to start a voice acting career in 2023 and become successful in this business.

Voice over actors are always in demand. An entry-level voice over actor makes about $14 per hour on average. Whereas an experienced voice over actor earns more than $70 per hour.

Starting a voice acting career is one of the many best career choices that people are making these days.

One of the benefits of voice over jobs is that one can also go freelance and make the same more money from the comfort of their home.

Do you remember being hooked to a cartoon’s voice as a kid?

Do you remember the voice of the dog from Scooby-Doo?

Well, it is one of the most nostalgic voices that you can recognize from afar.

The voice over was perfectly done by Frank Welker, who is considered one of the best in business.

However, it can be a competitive industry to break into. But that does not mean that you can’t get a job as a beginner.

In this article, we’ve covered all the basic voice acting career information that you need in order to start a successful online career journey as a voice actor.

You will learn also how to apply for a voice acting job as a beginner and get hired along with all the useful things that you will be needing in this journey.

one of the most high paying and famous voice over actor, frank welker
Frank Welker, the voice behind scooby-dooby-doo!

The most common questions that are asked related to voice over jobs are:

What is voice acting?

How can I make money as a voice over actor?

What are the pros and cons of this job?

How can I make money as a beginner in this field?

And what are the requirements to start a successful voice acting career?

So, now let’s address the elephants in the room!

What is a voice over actor?

Voice over actors are individuals who lend their voice for commercials, animations, movie characters, audiobooks, video games, films and theatre.

The voice acting industry is considered to be one of the most high-paying career as well as a highly competitive one.

But also because the industry is vast, it is like a heaven for beginners as well.

There is not just one type of voice acting jobs. There are plenty but these 9 voice over jobs are most popular to encourage you starting a voice over career in 2023.

  1. YouTube videos voice over
  2. Commercials
  3. Audiobooks
  4. Animated videos and movies
  5. Narrations
  6. Video games
  7. Corporate voice overs
  8. E-learning
  9. Public service announcements

Just to name a few!

voice actors behind the famous video games characters
The voice over actors behind the famous video games characters.

The main step into becoming a voice over actor is to learn how to use your vocal abilities and train your voice for this job.

Get some voice acting training

If you want to start a successful voice acting career, then you must get some training first.

Getting some training before you start the hunt for a job will give you a higher chance at getting the job than without the training.

In these training sessions, you will learn how to portray emotions through your voice and to transform your vocal abilities as per the demand of the script.

Again, you have a choice to choose how you wanna get trained. There are plenty of options here as well.

  • Get trained by a professional voice acting coach in a studio.
  • Get voice over training online by watching free courses.
  • Enroll in a virtual voice training class.
  • or learn by listening to the voice over podcasts.

How to Start a Voice Over Career 

How to start a voice acting career
Source: Pixabay

One of the richest and most talented voice over actors, Nancy Cartwright is worth a whopping $80 Million and charges anywhere between $300K per episode of her voice acting.

The career of voice acting has a solid potential of making you a millionaire. You just have to use the correct strategies to reach this goal.

Earning a living from voice acting, it requires some great efforts. And to make a great career in voice acting industry, you must really think like an entrepreneur.

You have to:

  1. Market your skills.
  2. Create a brand of your name.
  3. Manage things like a business.

Related: how to create a professional freelance profile

Here are some interesting voice acting tips to follow!

Follow the next tips and you’ll have a great chance to create a successful voice over career in 2023.

1. Get notified for voice acting auditions

The best way to get notified of auditions happening in the city is to hire an agent.

Most, if not all artists have an agent to informs them about the latest job openings and get them an audition.

Try to audition as much as possible in your starting days as a voice over actor this will open your chances for more jobs.

2. Keep with voice acting practice

Another smart approach to build a successful voice over career fast is to audition for more than one character.

This will increase your chances of getting the job. Being a versatile artist is the demand of this industry.

So, if you can perform in more than one voice then it increases your worth as a voice over actor.

This is another fast way to build a prominent voice acting career and stand among the crowd in the world of voice over industry.

3. Take care of your voice

Starting a voice over career does require a lot of practice as well.

You have to train your vocal cords for all sorts of shouting and screaming voices.

It may hurt in the beginning but doing this will prepare your throat for the actual acting phase.

So, you don’t have a throat ache after recording and can easily record for consecutive days.

In your initial days, you will go through many vocal discomforts when you are practicing for different roles.

In this business, your vocal cords are your biggest assets. So, taking care of your voice is as important for making good money as is landing a high-paying job.

See more: 17 high paying remote jobs that pays up to $75k

4. Sign up for the best voice acting websites

It takes a considerable amount of time in making a name for yourself in any industry.

However, amid your struggling days, you can also join freelance platforms and make good money online from voice acting jobs.

Upwork is one of the greatest freelancing platforms where you can sell your services and make money as a voice over actor.

Join these platforms to get good job opportunities as a voice over artist:

  1. Voices
  2. Voices123
  3. Bunny Studio 
  4. Filmliss
  5. Bodalgo (for professional voice over actors)

Completing voice acting jobs on these platforms also enables you to create a professional portfolio, that you can use later to audition for much bigger projects.

These are just a few of many factors that are involved in making money as a voice over actor.

Other key factors that are applicable to make good earnings include:

  • applying to a voice over job professionally (as a beginner).
  • having the qualities and gadgets required for a voice-over actor.

Voice acting jobs for beginners

As a beginner, there are many things to look out for in the job descriptions before you start applying to them.

You have to be a bit selective at the beginning of your voice over career, especially when you have little to no experience.

But do not worry, the trick lies in applying to jobs like a professional even when you are not one. Doing so increases your chances of getting hired.

1. Prepare some demo reels as samples

Demo reels are your samples that showcase your abilities.

Some clients might ask you to send in your demo reels before they call you in for an audition. The ideal length of a demo reel is anywhere between 2-3 minutes.

However, the clients only pay heed for the first 30 seconds of your reel and make a decision based on that.

So, you really have to give your best shot in the first minute of your demo. Here’s how to create a voice over demo : step by step guide

You can prepare demo reels as a beginner by recording a high-quality audio file that contains your best work. You can easily get a copyright-free script on the internet.

2. Shortlist voice acting Jobs that fit you the best

As we have mentioned that you must be selective when applying to jobs in the beginning.

Clients are really specific when they post a voice over job; the age, the language and dialect, the accent, the gender, deadline and the pay rate are all clearly written in the description.

So, you have to be really careful and shortlist only the types of jobs that you think you can ace!

This step is going to be so crucial when you are in this field to build your career in voice acting because you are narrowing down the jobs along with the competition.

3. Voice acting career auditions

When you receive a voice acting scripts for an audition there are some minute details that you must be careful about.

  • You must be the best voice for this job.
  • You must know how to connect emotionally with the audience using your voice.
  • You must have the supplies to generate a high-quality audio file.

Once you read the script, you will know whether your voice is perfect for the job or not. Give your best while auditioning and be a professional with your communication and acting skills.

4. Always add a custom cover letter to your audition

Once you are done with all the above-stated points, now it is time for your custom cover letter.

Cover letters are the most important part when you are applying for any voice acting jobs and sadly many people tend to ignore them.

You must always add a custom cover letter to your job application. The best cover letter must cover the following areas.

  • your brief introduction
  • relevant experience
  • your skills and abilities
  • how you can help the client reach their goals
  • why you think you can do the job better than the others

Adding custom letters rather than adding cover letter templates always proves to be beneficial as it shows your devotion and the time you have taken you to apply for the job professionally.

How to create a voice acting career

There are some qualities and requirements that are necessary for being a voice over actor. These gadgets are as important as having a good voice in this career.

1. Variety in vocal abilities

Can you perform in more than one voice? certainly, if you train your voice and notice the different voices around you then you can.

There are many talented voice over actors that can perform or dub more than one character with perfection.

So the variety in your vocal abilities can help you stand out in the crowd and definitely be the skill to make you great income in this field.

This can only be achieved by getting proper voice training and self-practice.

2. Sight-reading skills

Sight-reading is the art of auditioning while reading the script for the first time without preparation.

You will not always get the privilege of reading the script or practicing the script before the audition.

Sometimes, the first time you read the script is when you are auditioning with it. So, developing sight-reading skills will prove beneficial in times like this.

Building a good vocabulary is important in sight-reading as you do not get enough time to read the whole script, you analyze the words in bulk to form or build a structure and tone of the script.

3. Be punctual

Being punctual is the most important quality that you could develop which plays a huge role in your success.

If you want to make money by starting a voice over career, then you must be willing to respect the time allotted to you as you will be having plenty of auditions in a day.

Being late to an audition might reduce your chances of getting voice over jobs.

And as we’ve mentioned above that this industry is pretty saturated and you can lose the job to someone who’s, well, punctual!

4. Create a professional online presence

Creating an online presence as a professional voice over actor is like creating a door for more  opportunities to come to you.

LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for this regard where you can flaunt your achievements and skills.

With a growing network, you will also get more and more exposure ultimately landing in front of people who need you for their job.

To build a prominent voice acting career, voice over success is 80% marketing and 20% actually voice acting.

So, it is better to make a professional online presence at the beginning of your career in voice over.

Related: how to begin a career in digital marketing

5. Home studio equipment

Having a home studio is essential to create a successful voice over career (VOC).

It is a big investment but it is all worth it. However, we don’t recommend you set up a studio as a beginner.

But actually you can set up home base studio if you’re willing and you truly believe you can create a successful voice acting career for the long term of your life.

But you must have some basic knowledge of the equipment required in this industry because you will be needing a lot of those later.

Once started to make money from voice acting, you can invest some money on the home studio gear; so you can easily record high-quality voice-over audio files from home.

You can not record audio files on your phone as doing so will be compromising on the quality of the audio file. These important tools that every voice over actor needs to have been.

  • Microphone and microphone stand. This one is the most important when it comes to recording good audio files. You must know at what distance you should stand with the microphone in order to record the perfect voice over.
  • Headphones. Another important item for a voice over actor. The best headphones for professional use in recording studios and film studios are Sony MDR7506.
  • Voice editing software. Some of the best voice editing software to create a professional high-quality file include Adobe Audition, Garageband, Nuendo, and Ableton Live.
the best voice editing softwares for a successful voice over artist career seekers
You need the best voice over software in 2021 to make the best portfolio.

Benefits of VOC

Voice over acting is one of the most in demand skills and money making careers with many benefits.

  • You can do just as well as being a freelance voice over actor and make a great income from home.
  • You can be your own boss.
  • Work in flexible working hours.
  • High per hour rates as you become more experienced.
  • You never run out of options.

Downsides of VOC 

With pros also comes the cons. There are some downsides of starting a voice over career as well, but only at the beginning.

Because once you are established, opportunities will be coming to you rather than you looking for them.

  • It takes a long time in building a career in this profession.
  • You will have to take care extra care of your voice.
  • Your work can suffer if you have a cold or a bad throat.
  • You will have to invest some money into this career.

Related: top 10 side hustles for teens in 2023

Conclusion

You are now fully aware of all the basic knowledge you need about how to create a voice acting career so that you can make money as a voice over actor in 2023

Just like every career, creating a voice over career also takes time in the beginning, but eventually, you will start making a decent income after some time.

Having a distinctive voice is not enough as the market is becoming very saturated.

Once you showcase your skills and market yourself accordingly, then you will be able to make money from voice acting and live your dream life.

Just like in any other field where you need to tell the client why you will be the perfect choice for the job and be confident about it, you have to do the same here as well.

Keep adding new languages and accents to upgrade your skills and become the best in the business.

But like any other field, it also requires some skills and quite a lot of discipline in order to build a successful career in voice acting.

Seek guidance from experienced voice over actors and learn what tactics they apply to use their vocal abilities to the fullest.

Learning how to start a career in voice acting is important for new talents who are interested in jumping into voice over industry.