The entertainment and advertising industry has opened up a tremendous amount of opportunities for freelance…
How to Get Into Voice Acting
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Voice acting can be a great way to earn money as a freelancer. It sounds like it would be easy, but voice acting is not something you can just start doing. Voice acting is a serious freelance career that takes some time and money to begin.
There is a lot of demand for voice actors, but there’s also a lot of competition. Take good voice acting classes, buy quality voice acting equipment, get some experience and you can earn good money as a freelance voice actor.
Keep reading and discover how to get into voice acting.
What is voice acting?
Voice acting is performing voice overs for audio and video content in order to provide information or entertainment. People who perform voice acting are referred to by several different job titles – voice actors or actresses, voice over actors or actresses, voice artists and voice over artists.
What exactly do freelance voice actors do?
Voice actors act with their voices, reading from scripts to narrate documentaries, training videos, commercials and other types of informational content as well as to portray characters in dubbed movies, animated movies, television programs, commercials, video games and more.
Freelance voice actors have their own studio space and their own recording equipment to record themselves. They may also sometimes do voice overs in a studio.
How much does a voice actor make?
Here are the average hourly rates for voice acting in six different countries, according to PayScale.
The United States – 28.50 U.S. dollars per hour
Australia – 32.38 Australian dollars per hour
India – 1,000.00 Indian rupees per hour
The United Kingdom – 125.00 British pounds per hour
Canada – 21.00 Canadian dollars per hour
South Africa – 350 South African rand per hour
What qualities should voice over artists possess?
Certain personal qualities are helpful when you work as a voice over actor. In order to succeed as a voice over artist, it is very good if you have:
- confidence
- versatility
- consistency
- reliability
What skills should voice over artists possess?
You do need training before you begin to look for work as a voice over artist. Several skills which a successful voice over artist will have are:
- acting skills
- voice range
- clear enunciation
- voice pacing
- technical knowledge
- business skills
- people skills
- productivity skills
Where can I take voice acting classes?
Voice acting sounds like a job you can just walk right into, but you definitely need to know what you’re doing. You really need to take professional voice acting classes in order to make money as a freelance voice artist.
There are many different facets to voice artist training, and you may need to take more than one course to learn everything you need to know.
SuchaVoice.com offers comprehensive voice acting classes with their successful voice-over professionals. For an additional fee, you can also have private teleconferences to learn additional necessary skills. You can learn more about SuchaVoice training here.
VoiceCoaches.com offers voice acting training which they say is all-inclusive, realistic, client-paced and backed by their commitment to your success. You can learn more about VoiceCoaches training here.
SkillShare offers voice acting training, and a top voice acting class for beginners on Skillshare is Voice Over Masterclass – The Official DIY Guide to Voice Acting. This course, taught by a full-time professional voice actor, will teach you how to generate income through voice acting on your own. You can learn more about Voice Over Masterclass right here.
Udemy offers voice acting training, and a top voice acting class for beginners on Udemy is Voice Acting for Beginners: Learn Voice Acting from Scratch. This course, taught by a five-year veteran in radio voice acting, will teach you voice acting for commercials, animations, independent productions and freelance gigs. You can learn more about Voice Acting for Beginners right here.
What equipment do I need to earn money as a voice artist?
As a voice artist you will need equipment in order to do your job. You will also need a dedicated room or closet with acoustic treatment on the walls in which to record.
The voice acting equipment you will need includes:
- microphone
- microphone stand
- headphones
- recording and editing software
- pop screen/pop filter
- audio mixer and booth
- audio mixing software
Where can I find voice acting jobs?
There are many voice acting opportunities out there. Once you’ve had voice acting lessons and are all set up with a home studio, you can look for voice acting jobs on sites such as:
- Backstage.com
- Voices.com
- VoiceMarket.net
- VoiceOverJob.co
- Voice123.com
You can also look for voice over jobs on Upwork, or create a profile there or on Fiverr and let hirers find you.
Now you know how to get into voice acting. Find out how you can create multiple streams of income with this freelance career here!
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Sabina Lohr is a lifelong freelancer turned entrepreneur who created World of Freelancers to help others discover how to work for themselves online and live the freelance lifestyle. She’s always really enjoyed the freedom that freelancing brings, including several years on and off of working online while traveling and living abroad.
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Hi Sabina,
Excellent breakdown here. Voice actors can make a nice chunk of change and the amount of acting definitely seems less compared to an on-screen actor. Of course, you need serious skills to be able to land jobs. But there is plenty of potential out there especially as audio content seems to be more popular these days.
Ryan
Thanks, Ryan. 🙂 In researching this post, I discovered how much there is to voice acting! Who knew? Definitely not something you can just jump into on the spur of the moment!