Voice-over is fun, but it's also a business.
And like any business there are voice-over resources like tools, equipment, products and people that will help make your business more successful.
In this guide, is a list of 20+ important categories related to running your voice-over business.
This includes over 80 options to help you in your voice-over career, no matter where you currently are.
I've highlighted the voice-over resources I personally recommend based on my own experience. Some may be affiliate links.
Accounting Apps
Most of today's voice-over work is done for clients via the internet. An accounting app not only keeps your income and expenses in order, but also makes sending invoices and getting paid online quick and easy.
SpitFire CRM was built for voice-over actors.
With accounting, and billing, plus prospecting and customer relationship management capabilities, it's the perfect all-in-one solution for growing your voice-over business.
Cost is less than $15 per month (with annual plan) for unlimited clients and invoices.
Freshbooks is small business accounting software. Send invoices, track time, manage receipts, and expenses. Free 30-day trial.
Cost ranges from $15 - $50 per month based on how many clients you have.
QuickBooks Online is an invoicing and accounting platform built for self-employed pros.
Cost ranges from $10 - $60 per month depending on the plan and any add-ons you choose.
Wave Apps is financial software built for small businesses. Offering free invoicing & accounting software with credit card processing & payroll services.
It's free - they earn money from processing fees.
ZipBooks is an accounting software that sends invoices, tracks time and expenses, integrates with your bank & lets you process credit cards.
Plans range from Free to $125 per month.
Acoustical Room Treatments
One of the most important parts of your recording space is acoustical treatment. Proper acoustical treatment gives you a clean voice-over recording by controlling reflections that come from walls, corners and ceilings.
Studiofoam Wedgies are 1' squares of 2' thick and are a great solution for spot treating your voice-over recording space. Studiofoam Wedgies are a great solution for flutter echo problem areas.
LENRD stands for Low-End-Node-Reduction-Device. LENRD Bass Traps are extremely effective at smoothing out low frequency room nodes at a price that anybody can afford.
These noise reduction blankets are perfect for proper acoustic room treatment. They can help cancel reverberation you hear from hard surface walls, ceilings and floors. Hang from the ceiling (using grommets) to create a voice-over tent.
The VOMO is a carry-on portable vocal booth for voice-over. It measures 24"wide x 22" tall x 5.5' deep. With a carrying case, isolation hood and script holder it makes a great companion for doing voice-over on the road.
Voice-Over Agents
More auditions = more chances to book voice acting jobs. The right voice-over agent can bring you higher paying jobs for huge brand name clients.
Ready to compete against the best in voice-over?
Bring your "A" game and seek representation from a reputable voice-over agent.
Abrams Artists Agency represents some of the entertainment industry’s most talented film, TV and theater actors across our adult and youth talent divisions.
ACM Talent represents the most accomplished and cutting edge industry talent, providing diverse opportunities in voiceover.
Atlas Talent Agency is an American commercial talent agency, specializing in voiceover talent.
CESD is one of the nation’s most prestigious voice-over talent agencies and a dominant force in the industry.
As working talent professionals, TMG was founded to fill a need for trustworthy, straightforward representation.
VO Agent Alliance is a talent agency collective that aims to hold the bar high for the voiceover industry.
William Morris, is an American talent agency with offices in Beverly Hills, California.
Audio Recording & Editing Software
Recording and editing voice-over means using software on a daily basis.
Even though the sound quality is the same no matter which software you use, the features differ.
While most advanced features are better suited for making music, some features can improve the efficiency of your voice-over workflow.
Adobe Audition Creative Cloud was originally Cool Edit Pro. Since Adobe took over, the software has only improved. It makes recording and editing voice-over a breeze.
Adobe Audition CC costs around $20 per month if you go with an annual plan.
Audacity is free, open source audio software. With the ability to record, edit and export, it's not fancy, but it's everything you need for voice-over.
TwistedWave is an audio editor that's easy to use, fast, and powerful. It's available for Mac, iPhone / iPad and online.
Cost for TwistedWave for Mac is $80.
REAPER is a complete digital audio production application, offering a full multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolset.
A discounted license for Reaper is $60. If your gross revenue exceeds $20k/year you'll need a commercial license, which is $225.
Audio Interfaces
Available options for getting your voice from your microphone to your computer have come a long way since built-in computer sound cards. Your audio interface choice will most likely depend on the input type available on your computer.
Here's a few popular options among the voice-over community (that'll last for years in your recording studio).
Apollo Twin MkII delivers enhanced audio conversion with the tone, feel, and flow of analog recording.
The SOLO version costs around $700 (plug-ins are additional).
The EVO 4 from Audient offers clean, warm and accurate EVO preamps – with 58dB of gain range.
The cost of the EVO 4 is around $130.
The Universal Audio Apollo Solo is a cost-effective way to enter into the world of UAD Powered Plug-ins and is a great way for UAD-equipped voiceover studios to take their projects mobile.
The cost of the Solo is around $700 (plug-ins are additional).
MixerFace R4 Mobile Recording Interface from CEntrance is a four-channel mixer with three outputs.
Ever want to record voice-over directly to your iPhone or Android? The R4 can be used when paired with a smartphone device.
The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is a workhorse. It's well built and provides incredible quality audio in a small body.
The cost of the 2i2 is around $145.
iD4 delivers the audio performance of a large format console in a portable desktop package. iD4 is a professional but affordable solution for your home studio or for when you’re on the road.
The iD4 costs around $200.
The Mackie Onyx Artist 1-2 USB Interface delivers true studio-quality sound with maximum headroom and ultra-low noise.
This Mackie Onyx Artist is $99
The RME Babyface Pro is engineered to give you great control directly on its faceplate, and a sturdy and attractive aluminum casing. The RME Babyface Pro makes it easier than ever to record voice-over.
The RME BabyFace Pro costs $750.
The Shure X2u is a simple XLR-to-USB Signal Adapter. Plug in any XLR microphone and it'll convert the signal to a USB input for digital recording.
The X2u will set you back $99.
Record voice-over in studio quality on your laptop, iPad or even iPhone with the UR22mkII, with outstanding audio and build quality for its price class.
The UR22 costs around $150.
Coaching
Never stop improving your voice-over skills.
There's always something you can learn and get better at in voice-over (and in life).
Working with a qualified voice-over coach is a great way to figure out where you can improve. Even a minor change has the potential to make a huge impact to your audition-to-booking ratio.
Jason McCoy is a full-time working voice-over actor with over 20 years of experience. While he doesn't consider himself a "coach", he loves talking with students, answering questions and sharing his experience to help others reach their goals.
With 40 years of professional voice-over experience, Julie Williams is highly qualified voiceover life coach.
Her mission statement is to honor God by ensuring all of her clients and students get more out of the relationship than she does.
Everett Oliver is one of LA’s most respected and sought after voiceover coaches.
Gabby offers voiceover training & lessons in her Charlotte, NC studio as well as remote training for those outside of the area.
GVAA offers personalized voice over coaching to help you launch or accelerate your voice over career.
Jeff Howell began his voice-over industry career as an agent at Abrams-Rubaloff & Lawrence. His teaching experience includes Voicetrax/San Francisco, local workshops in Los Angeles and New York, and private coaching.
J. Michael Collins has mentored some of the industry’s fastest rising stars in VO. His proven performance-oriented coaching techniques will harness your strengths.
Marc Cashman is an award-winning Radio & TV commercial producer and voice actor with over 35 years of broadcast and production experience.
Nancy Wolfson is a private Voice Over Teacher, and is recommended by top-market talent Agents as the premiere “Go To” person in advising beginning and expert talent on Personal Branding.
Conferences
Voice-Over conferences have become big over the past few years. It's where voice actors can learn, discuss voice-over and connect with others.
VO Atlanta is one of the largest in-person voice-over conferences. Talks, panels and breakout sessions, they have it all!
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
When you're dealing with hundreds or even thousands of voice-over clients, you need to keep every contact organized.
A CRM (customer relationship management) can give you reminders and help you know who's who, so no customer falls through the cracks.
SpitFire CRM was built for voice actors.
From prospecting (finding new clients), to keeping in touch with existing customers, plus accounting and billing features, it's the perfect all-in-one solution for growing your voice-over business.
Cost is $25 per month for unlimited clients and invoices.
HubSpot CRM helps you organize, track, and build relationships with leads and customers.
The basic CRM is free, with advanced features starting at $50 per month.
Nimble is a CRM that helps teams nurture business relationships across email and social media.
Cost of Nimble is $9 - $25 per month depending on plan/term.
Streak is a CRM that allows you to manage sales and customer relationships directly inside Gmail.
Cost ranges from free to $99 per month.
VoiceOverView is a management tool built by voice actors, for voice actors that helps you track your voice-over business.
Cost ranges from free to $10 per month.
Demo Producers
Coaching and demo production go hand-in-hand. A voice-over demo producer will work with you to make sure you sound your best and are taken seriously.
Not only will you have a final demo you can be proud of but one that actually helps you land voice-over work.
Hiring a professional voice-over demo producer typically costs $2k-$3k.
For over 30 years, Emmy Award winning sound designer, recording engineer and producer "Uncle Roy" Yokelson has built an impressive list of credits for his work in a wide variety of media.
Chuck Duran is the Owner and Head Producer at Demos That Rock Studios in Los Angeles.
He has a varied and extensive background in the entertainment business, with hundreds of impressive credits to his name.
Eric Romanowski is an Elite Voiceover Demo Producer and Radio Imaging Producer/Coach. He produces top-caliber demos for some of the biggest voiceover talent.
GVAA takes a collaborative approach to each demo, working in tandem with coaches, talent, and producers to ensure its relevant, and on brand.
J. Michael Collins is a leader in the field of voiceover demo production.
Domain Names
Most businesses start with a website.
The first step is picking a good, easy to remember domain name for your voice-over business.
Use these sites to see what's available and purchase your URL.
Namecheap offers cheap domain names and reliable service. Plus fewer up-sells during the checkout process.
GoDaddy makes registering Domain Names fast, simple, and affordable.
Email Marketing
Anyone who has bought voice-over from you in the past is more likely to buy from you again in the future.
An email marketing service allows you to stay in touch on a regular basis, so you can stay top of mind and not be forgotten.
Standout is an all-in-one marketing powerhouse platform. Never loose touch with a client or let a lead fall thru the cracks.
All your voice-over marketing needs, in one place.
ActiveCampaign is an integrated email marketing tool to help save time while growing your business with sales automation.
MailChimp offers email marketing, and automation tools to grow your business on your terms.
Mailer lite offers is an affordable, easy to use tool to handle your email marketing.
File Transfer Services
Anyone who has bought voice-over from you in the past is more likely to buy from you again in the future.
An email marketing service allows you to stay in touch on a regular basis, so you can stay top of mind and not be forgotten.
Dropbox is a file hosting service designed to reduce busywork-so you can focus on the things that matter.
FileTransfer.io is a simple and reliable way to transfer files for free up to 6 GB.
WeSendit is the safest and easiest way to send large or small files, no registration required!
WeTransfer is the simplest way to send your files around the world. Share large files up to 2GB for free.
Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.
Hard Drives
High quality voice-over files (like .wav and .aiff) can take up a lot of space. In order to keep your computer running fast, I suggest using an external hard drive (plus one for a backup) to keep all your files.
The Samsung T5 is a great match for your voice-over studio. It's small enough to be portable, so you can take it with you on the road it needed. And since it's a solid state drive, there are no moving parts or noise that interferes with your recording.
Headphones
Some voice actors use headphones, and others choose not to. Do whatever helps you perform your best and create great voice-over every day.
The HD 280 PRO is a pair of closed, dynamic stereo headphones that deliver accurate, linear sound reproduction with ambient noise attenuation.
The DT 770 PRO (80 ohms) is a closed dynamic headphone that is ideal for professional voice-over use.
Sony MDR7506 are Professional Large Diaphragm Headphones. Engineered to be comfortable to wear for extended periods, making it ideal for use in voice-over.
Hosting
Already have your domain name?
Set up website hosting to store the files that make up your website (including your demo). Hosting is cheap and easy to do.
WPX is one of the fastest WordPress hosting providers...with first-class support that responds in minutes, unlimited free SSL certificates and free site migration.
Bluehost is one of the largest website hosting providers and powers millions of websites.
BlueHost costs $4/month to start, then $8/month.
(The link above is an affiliate link)
Lead Generation
In order to stay in business, your business needs new leads on a consistent basis.
Here are a couple ways to get new leads.
Find Leads Fast is the easy way to find great voice-over leads within search results.
Save time prospecting by filtering out past good and bad leads. Check out this step-by-step guide.
Find Leads Fast is $197 per year.
With 500 million+ members, LinkedIn is a great way to find and start relationships with the people who hire voice actors.
ProductionHUB connects you with professional content creators. Find film and video production companies who need voice-over.
Microphones
All kinds of microphones, for all kinds of budgets. Which voice-over mic can capture your voice best?
The TLM 103 Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone from Neumann is a cardioid, directional microphone that features low self-noise. It's super-sensitive which means you'll need a well treated space, otherwise it'll pickup all the flaws of the room.
The MKH 416 is a shotgun interference tube microphone. Its excellent directivity and small design, low self noise, high consonant articulation and feedback rejection make the MKH 416 a superb voice-over microphone.
You'll be amazed by the sound this cleverly-designed MXL V67G microphone provides and pleasantly pleased with the price. Listen to a comparison here.
Legendary sound with a little price tag, the MXL 990 has a silky, sweet high end while retaining tight, solid low and midrange reproduction.
The E100S large diaphragm supercardioid condenser has the lowest noise floor in its class (3.7 dBA) and the smooth, vintage tone and robust low end CAD is known for.
Apogee MiC Plus is a professional studio quality USB microphone you can connect to your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC. MiC Plus makes it easy to capture voice-over with incredible quality, anywhere you go.
Microphone Boom Arms
You'll need something to hold your microphone close to your mouth. While some voice actors use a fixed mic stand, mic boom arms attach to a desk or table and provide flexibility when it comes to positioning.
The Rode PSA1 is a broadcast-style professional Studio Desk Boom Arm with Standard Microphone Threading, 360-degree Rotation and Over 3' Horizontal and Vertical Reach
The Neewer NW-35 microphone suspension scissor arm stand has a steel frame but is still completely flexible and firmly attaches the microphone anywhere.
The Ultima Gen2 Ultra Low Profile Adjustable Mic Boom allows you greater flexibility in mic placement. Reducing the visual clutter of traditional mic arms, this mic boom hugs the work surface.
Online Casting Sites (Pay-to-Play)
Online voice-over casting sites have worked hard to position themselves as the place to go when a client needs voice-over.
Become a member and it suddenly becomes less about finding the jobs, and more about winning the jobs.
While most of the job postings on Bodalgo are from client's outside the US, they are some of the most professional clients you'll find on an online casting website. A yearly membership costs around $250.
Voice123 allows you to directly contact and negotiate rates with clients that hire you. They don't charge commissions or fees on jobs you book. The Premium membership is $395/year.
Voices.com connects businesses with professional voice talent. Members get access to 1000’s of voice over jobs monthly. The Premium membership is $499/year. Use code VOICEACTINGAFF to get a discount (affiliate link).
The Voice Realm is one of the world's biggest network of casting websites for advertisers, producers, and creatives to source world class voices at affordable rates.
Payment Processors
Voice-Over isn't as much fun if you don't get paid.
These payment processing services make receiving online payments easy.
PayPal is the faster, safer way for voice-over businesses to send and receive money.
Stripe offers an easy way for internet businesses to accept online payments.
Podcasts & Shows (related to voice-over)
There's always something you can learn or improve in your voice-over career.
Make the best use of your time by listening to a podcast or watching a voice-over show, while you're mowing the lawn, or walking on a treadmill (not when you're supposed to be working).
The Voice Acting 101 Podcast covers all topics related to voice-over. If you're looking for straight-forward answers to voice-over questions in the least amount of time as possible - check out the Voice Acting 101 podcast.
Mission Audition is a podcast that takes you through the audition process in a client’s shoes. Actual auditions are analyzed so you can learn common pitfalls to avoid & tips to ensure your auditions impress the client.
The VO BOSS podcast blends advice on solid, actionable Business Owner Strategies & Success with a dose of inspiration for today's voiceover talent.
VO Buzz Weekly has interviews with voice actors, talent agents, casting directors and coaches.
Voice Over Body shop is a Real, Live, VO Talk Show with Dan Lenard & George Whittam.
The Voiceover Marketing Podcast is dedicated to teaching in-depth and advanced marketing, business and personal productivity strategies for people in the voice over and audio production professions.
Voice-Over Roadmap offers Voice-Over Tips, Training, Coaching, Strategies and more for VO Talent of all experience levels.
The VO Meter is a podcast that helps you measure your voice-over progress.
Stories from the VO Booth is a podcast that shares real stories from various voice talent, producers and more.
Pronunciation Guides
How do you say that? Don't know?
Luckily there's probably someone on the internet who has recorded how it's pronounced.
Oxford Dictionaries puts language information at your fingertips, including pronunciation guides.
The dictionary by Merriam-Webster is America's most trusted online dictionary for English word definitions, meanings, and pronunciation.
YouGlish gives you fast, unbiased answers about how English is spoken by real people and in context.
Forvo is the largest pronunciation dictionary in the world. All the words in all the languages pronounced by native speakers.
YouTube is a great place to find out how companies want their name to be pronounced.
Voice-Over Rates
Don't settle for anything less than your voiceover is worth. Use these rate guides to help you know what to charge and how to price your voiceover services.
The Voice Acting 101 non-union voice-over rate guide was created to help simplify voice-over rates.
GVAA offers the most comprehensive
voiceover rate guide in the industry!
Voices created a voice over rates sheet to help suggest to buyers and sellers what a voiceover would cost based on length and usage.
Remote Recording & ISDN Alternatives
If you don't already have ISDN, it's difficult to get it installed now.
Thankfully, you may not need it.
Brilliant people have used the power of the internet to surpass the quality and convenience of ISDN. Now if only all clients and studios would just agree.
And if you need playback functionality for your voice-over sessions, try Loopback (made for MAC).
IPDTL is an ISDN Replacement for remote broadcast contributions. It's perfect for connected your voice-over studio to your client's.
Source-Connect is the ISDN replacement with a deep feature-set for all your remote audio recording and monitoring needs.
ConnectionOpen gives you the freedom to connect uncompressed and synchronized with multiple users and won’t leave you reliant on a specific browser, hardware, or expensive ISDN line.
Cleanfeed enables anyone to send, receive and record live audio using only a browser.
Skype offers free online calls and affordable calls to mobiles and landlines. It's great if you need a phone patch in your studio.
Support
Whether you need help troubleshooting a studio problem or just have a voice-over question, here are some ways to get help.
You want your personal voice over studio to be competitive in the rapidly expanding voice over market. Dan Lenard can help turn a space in your house or apartment into the ultimate personal voice over studio.
George Whittam’s golden ears and over 20 years pro-audio experience as an engineer and technician will walk you through the processes of improving your studio’s acoustics.
Vocal Booths
Shhh... Do you hear that?
You wouldn't if you were in an isolated vocal booth. Keep the noise out of your studio with a vocal booth.
STUDIOBRICKS acoustic booths - Top sound insulation, acoustics and design with simple construction and transport. Subtle, elegant and beautiful!
Since 1990, WhisperRoom, Inc. has manufactured and shipped Sound Isolation Enclosures across the world. Their sound isolation booths significantly reduce ambient and acoustic noise and can be used as vocal booths for voice over.
Website Design & Tools
A professionally designed website with your branding helps make a great first impression. Here are some website resources (including demo players).
Thrive Suite a collection of tools designed to help any DIYer build a great looking website. One tool, Thrive Architect, is an easy to use drag n' drop webpage builder.
The VO Website Template is a done-for-you service that gets your new optimized voice-over website up and running fast! Website hosting, professional email and the VO Demo Player Plugin are all included.
Standout Fast can design, build and host your custom voice-over website. Get a beautiful website that loads faster, plus great support.
Discover 1000s of premium WordPress themes & website templates, including multipurpose and responsive templates.
Voice Actor Websites specializes in mobile friendly solutions for voice actors.
They offer two design packages - templates or custom sites.
The VO Demo Player Plugin is a fast loading, mobile friendly, completely customizable audio player made for showcasing voice-over demos on WordPress websites.
tPlayer is a powerful and customizable responsive audio and radio player for your website. Install in any wordpress theme.
VoiceZam is a website demo player for Voice-Over Professionals that is able to provide you with demo playback stats.
Pricing starts at $9 per month and increases based on add-on services.
WavePlayer is a fully customizable, responsive HTML5 audio plugin for WordPress. Its interface is built around the waveform of the audio file that is playing back.
Karma is a responsive, simple audio player plugin for WordPress which you can use to showcase your demos on your website.
Sonaar's MP3 Audio Player Pro is a plugin for WordPress to add and customize your voice-over demos on your website.
What Voice-Over Resource Would You Recommend?
What did I forget?
Got a category, tool, resource, or person you'd recommend to be included on this list?
Name it and let me know your experiences in the comments below.
Jason, I kept waiting for the sales pitch…………………….none came! Thank you for being the stand up professional that you are! I almost signed up with one of the YouTube fast talkers, but something felt wrong.
Your willingness to create this free site saved me at least $1000 likely much more.
I will be reaching out to you for coaching soon as a result, and utilizing the other professional contacts you have provided. I’m ready to go full time as of January 1st 2024!
You can reach out to me at the email provided. I would love to work with you!
Thanks again and Happy Holidays!
Thanks Don! Glad to hear this helped you! I’d suggest checking this link out for more: https://voiceacting101.com/getstarted/
There is definately a lot to find out about this subject. I like all the points you made
Hi Jason.
I am speechless! Many thanks for this invaluable information.
You’re welcome Etombè!
Whao impresive list! Thanks Jason. Very thorough. I am also starting.
Wow! What a genius resource list! Thank you for this. I wonder what your best advice would be for getting started with nothing but an iphone voice recorder and possibly a free editing app like Audacity. Is it even possible? Or would it be utter nonsense?
Audacity is fine, but I wouldn’t use an iphone. I suggest an inexpensive mic like the V67G. https://amzn.to/2K8jeQB
Hi Jason. Thanks so much for this list, it’s beyond helpful. In addition to the coaches you recommended here, would you also throw “Uncle Roy” Yokelson with Antland Productions into the coaching category? I spoke with him about potentially doing an initial evaluation. Thank you.
Thank you so much for all of the resources and recommendations. Have a great day!
Thank you!
What did you forget? The kitchen sink! This is an invaluable list. Seems complete to me. Thank you for this.
ha! Thanks Michael!
This is the master of all VO resource lists. THANK YOU!
Hi Jason! Your article is very interesting is listed with numerous platforms where one can apply for and it may satisfy almost every. I am quite interested with the jobs of voice-over.
Thanks for your guidance.
Thank you so much Jason for all the listed resources! I wanted to ask what are your thoughts on the casting site voicebunny.com. How are they in comparison to other sites like voices.com
Hi Tiffany,
The rates are super low and you have to be quick to audition. You get a few bucks for the audition but even if you get the job it isn’t a great rate. Some people new to voice-over use it to “test the waters”. It’s not great for building a VO business. Voices has much better paying jobs.
The content is very interesting for voice overs. Thanks Jason.
I saw your video on youtube on auditioning for voices.com jobs (I’m glad I’ve been doing it correctly for the first 5 auditions I’ve done so far. lol) but at the end of the video you mention you have email templates that you created. I’m trying to find those templates.
Hi James, You can download the Voices templates in this guide https://voiceacting101.com/voice-acting-auditions-on-voices/
Mixcraft8 Pro. great DAW with tones of virtual midi controlled instruments, effects, and can also edit video. Has a great library of song components to quickly compose a soundtrack. ALL royalty free. add photo’s as well. A headshot maybe?
Jason, you’ve provided a ton of resources…awesome and thanks! Fortunately, there’s more information available beyond your “Goldmine” of resources. Question, what’s your suggestion for a beginning Voiceover Talent not to feel overwhelmed and staying focused?
Hi Ameenah,
I’d suggest breaking it down into mini-steps to prevent being overwhelmed. Just figure out what small step you need to do today that helps you make progress. Remember, you don’t need everything from this list all at once. Some things you may never need – others come up depending on your studio, your jobs, your clients, your workflow, etc…When you have a need, the list is here to reference.
FANTASTIC! Thank you! **GOLD**
Hello Jason! The Voice-Over Resources guide is awesome!!! Thank you so much for it! I really like the VoiceZam idea! Will definitely be looking into that one! As well as many others on the list! Thank you again!
Happy to help Christian!
Hey Jason! As always, this is a very helpful resource. Thanks!
I’m about to create my VO website. I’ll probably use a wordpress template because I’m handy with that and already have hosting for other sites. My question for you: would you recommend a separate domain name for my voice work, or would a sub domain at my on-camera acting website be better? Which do you think is more professional? On one hand I’d like to leverage my on-camera experience but on the other I don’t want to look like I’m not serious about it. Thoughts?
Thanks JS. WordPress is great. Yes, I’d suggest having a domain for just voice-over. If you have an about section on the VO site, you could link to your on-camera acting website from there – but I think the two should be separate since you’ll be marketing them to different clients.
Thanks Jason, great advice!
Jason! I cant believe thi.s AMAZING GIFT! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I’m VERY EXCITED to come back to me and resume building my VO business. I was wondering where to get practice scripts? Can I record commercials to transcribe without. copywrite infringement?
Again I ,as I know that anyone else who has received this email, are VERY GRATEFUL!
Shelly
So glad you love it Shelly! Regarding transcribing commercials – many, many people do this. Some say it’s a copyright issue, others say it’s fair use. My suggestion would be to check with an attorney or go the safe route and write your own.
Fiverr has some great writers and you can get them for $5.00. I also rewrite alot of the stuff I get from them to really get more bang for my buck (or 5)
Hi Jason, this is inspirational thank you. My question is, where do you actually start? Voice training? recording a demo? making a website? Most things cost money or have a monthly commitment so before I commit finances, what do I do first and then do I call an agent or spend ages finding and emailing production companies? Lastly, do you have any info regarding UK resources or know someone that does?
Thanks,
Richard.
Glad it helped you Richard.
For most people the steps should look like this:
1. Setup a studio
2. Hire a voice-over coach
3. Hire a voice-over demo producer
4. Start Marketing
Most people DO need to hire a voice-over coach. Most people DO need to hire a voice-over demo producer.
But those costs were too much for me when I started 20 years ago. And I’m all for building a voice-over business with cash flow / no debt.
So my start went like this:
1. Decided a voice-over career would be my focus.
2. Had a day job and started a small savings for studio equipment ($600)
3. Bought studio equipment and practiced non-stop.
4. Created a DIY voice-over demo.
5. Created a website and started marketing
6. Got work and built my client base, quit my day job to do VO full-time.
7. Used revenue to buy memberships to online casting websites
8. Got more work, continued marketing and building client base.
9. Reinvested cash flow for better gear, coaching and demo producers.
I had experience in audio production and I practiced voice-over for years before starting. So these baby steps worked for me but won’t work for everyone.
I suggest building your business yourself before calling on agents.
Thanks a lot, very sound advice.
Very, very helpful! Wow thanks Jason!! My start is quite similar to yours :).
Thank you, Denise
Thanks Jason, this is top advice. I have decided to invest in a good Mic which is the Neumann TLM 103 and yes, it’s does sound amazing with no noise compared to the mic I was using before. I also use my girlfriends closet for now until I get in to a bigger house where I can set a studio up. I record in to a Zoom H5. I use Reaper to edit my recordings. Here’s a pic of my studio. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4728c3af50aac32f9ee17f67f36ba37e1edfea99773380144fc28aa9789bd4c8.jpg
Nice Richard – thanks for posting the pic!
Hey Jason! This is fantastic!!!! Thank you so much :).
Denise
Thanks Denise!
Thank you for making this so much easier. It definitely helps when all the research is already done for us. I am totally a novice wanting to break into voiceover acting and your information and assistance make this alot more stress free.
Thanks Jan! I’m so glad it’s helping you and taking the stress away!
Thanks Jason! Inspite of all of my “research”, I have only heard of about 1/3 of the items and/or services. This is a great resource and it will be appreciated by us newbies.
Happy to help Alan!
Hey Jason! Really nice list! Great resource. I’d love to see VOICEOVERVIEW added to the accounting and CRM list. It is a full service business tracking and management tool built by voice actors for voice actors. It includes income and expense tracking, client relationship tracking, a full dashboard of metrics to help talent understand their business and has been in business for 18 months. We’ve received rave reviews from our ever-growing subscriber base. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks Dani. Planning to include it in the CRM section – didn’t know it was an accounting app as well.