Voiceover Agencies - The Facts

Whether you’re looking to hire voiceover actors or you’re trying to make a successful career as one, you’ve probably considered getting in touch with a voiceover agency. This brief guide will hopefully answer a lot of your questions about voiceover agencies.

What are Voiceover Agencies?

Voiceover agencies represent a range of voiceover actors; they catalogue the various abilities of their clients and look for appropriate voiceover work for them. They also serve as a mediator between their clients and the various businesses and broadcasting companies who would like to hire them, negotiating contracts on their behalf.

Who Uses Voiceover Agencies?

Voiceover agencies are used by a huge range of people across many different industries. Here is a small, non-exhaustive list of the kinds of people who use voiceover agencies:

Advertising agencies
Individual businesses making TV and radio ads
Radiobroadcasters
Cartoon animators
Children’s toy manufacturers
Travel companies
App designers
Computer game companies
Foreign film companies in need of dubbed voiceovers

Voiceover agencies are also used by the voice actors they represent. If an agency is prestigious enough, it may make more sense to you as an actor to have them represent you as opposed to representing yourself. Perhaps you’re just starting out and you have a lot of talent but no reputation in the industry to show off your abilities. This is where a voiceover agency could prove very useful, as it can help burgeoning voiceover actors to get a few jobs under their belts.

What are the Pros and Cons to Using Agencies?

No two agencies are exactly the same, so everything in this section should be taken lightly. There are some general pros and cons to voiceover agencies that you may like to consider:

Pros for actors

Agencies are a great way to generate work for actors as they have far-reaching marketing strategies and industry connections.

Voiceover agencies are ideal for people new to the industry who don’t know what to charge or how to find work.

As agencies do all of their own marketing, they are great for people who have other jobs or don’t want to spend any time marketing themselves and are happy to take whichever jobs come their way.

Cons for actors

Agencies have large rosters of clients (other voiceover actors) so you may be forced to compete with a lot of similar people — especially if the agency has a lot of voice actors similar to you. Depending on the agency and your range of voices, you may be quite far down the pecking order.

You won’t have as much control over the different jobs you do. Of course, you can always say no to work, so you’ll have control in that way, but as with the point above, you maybe not be considered for certain jobs because the agency has put you into certain niches in relation to their different clients. For example, even if you can do 100 different voices, you may only ever receive work for 10 of them because this is where you fit into the agency’s wider roster of clients.

Once you’re an established voiceover actor, you may not need an agency to find you work, so you will be needlessly haemorrhaging money in fees to the agency for getting you work you might have been able to get on your own.

Pros for businesses

Agencies can be the quickest way to find a good voiceover actor as they will have discerning recruitment practices that ensure they only hire people who are right for the job.

Although agencies often charge more than independent voiceover artists, their prices are often much clearer and may even be available on their website without having to ask for a bespoke quote.

If you are likely to need a few different voiceover actors at once, it may work out better to go straight to an agency as opposed to taking the time to find each different voice independently. Agencies know their clients’ different abilities intimately and will be able to recommend the right people for the job.

Cons for businesses

To account for the agency’s fee, you will often pay more for a voiceover actor from an agency than for an independent voiceover actor who negotiates their own prices.

You will have to do all of your dealings with the agency, which can slow things down a little. If you’re in a hurry, this can be a huge negative. Working with a voiceover actor like Guy, who you can talk to directly, usually means that a job can be completed on the same day it is asked for.

Voiceover agencies are a vital part of the industry and they may be the right choice for you, so I hope this guide has proven useful. But don’t stop here, carry on researching before you make any big decisions! It may even be worth contacting a few agencies to ask them how they work.
If you’re interested in some voiceover work and would like to work directly with Guy, then feel free to get in touch and to listen to a range of his different voices on his commercial showreel!

If you would like to know more please get in touch.

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