The voice-over industry is one of the oldest industries related to music and video. The first audio recording device was created in 1877, and, when the first cartoon with sound was created in 1930, voice actors became a necessity. As time passed, voice-overs became more and more critical. The voice-over industry experienced a major spike when youtube was released to the public in 2005. But there’s a silent killer in the voice-over industry. What exactly is harming the industry? What does it mean for you?
Cheap Is More Costly
Cheap voice overs are often less quality than their more expensive counterparts. Most voice actors looking to make a quick buck by voice are much less dedicated to the art of voice acting and are doing it purely for the money. Why exactly is this bad for you? How is this harming the entire voice-over industry?
Well, for starters, cheaper voice-overs mean more work for you. You’ll be spending countless hours trying to find a good voice actor and will be spending more time denying options than approving them. This, of course, is going to be incredibly frustrating for you. On top of that, if you do manage to find a cheap voice actor that matches your expectations, you won’t be receiving professional service. Most cheap voice actors will be apathetic and less inclined to work closely with you and make your dream project come to life. Not only that, but cheap services tend to be less passionate about voice-overs. That means less emotion, less excitement, and less effort put into the work. Cheap voice actors see voice-overs as a job, not a passion.
This impacts the entire voice-over industry for a multitude of reasons. For one, content creators will become frustrated with voice-overs and might end up doing it themselves. Cheap options make the industry look like a scam or just another side-hustle. In turn, this will make content creators less likely to look for a voice actor and less inclined to support the voice-over industry. Content creators who have a poor experience with cheap voice-overs aren’t going to want to shell out hundreds of dollars to hire a voice actor when they had such a bad experience with cheaper options. It’s been seen countless times throughout history that hesitance to invest in results in a rapid decline in the industry.
Poor Experiences- Common Issues And How You Can Prevent Them
Before we dive into preventing bad experiences with cheap voice actors, it should be noted that hiring a voice actor is much like hiring any other online service. You should never pay before you receive the service. If a service asks you to pay for an audition, avoid that voice actor. Never hire a voice actor if their background seems too good to be true for their price. It most likely is too good to be true. Cheap voice actors probably won’t have been hired to make a voice-over for a professional movie.
Now that you understand that you always need to do your research before hiring a cheap voice-over service let’s dive into what issues are common and how you can prevent them from happening.
One of the most common issues associated with a poor voice actor is, believe it or not, the price. Oftentimes a cheap voice-over means a few revisions. Voice actors might charge you extra for revisions. If you need to make a multitude of these revisions, the price will add up. To prevent this issue from occurring, it’s best to agree on the revision protocol before beginning the order. Make sure that the voice actor isn’t going to charge you full-price for a revision.
Don’t hire voice actors that seem to offer a considerably lower price than other voice-over services. If the price seems to be suspiciously low, avoid that service. Cheap service means a massive cut in the quality of the service. That, of course, means a variety of issues for you. As stated before, a price that seems too good to be true probably is a sign of an issue.
The last common issue that we’re going to discuss is the problem associated with time. Hiring a cheap voice-over service means that you will have to spend more time making the voice-over the quality you want it to be. It’s not uncommon for content creators to push back their ideal release date because they have to spend so much time making edits to the audio. To avoid this, make sure that you only hire a voice-actor that performed flawlessly during the audition.
As you can see, cheap voice-recording is a major issue for both content creators and the voice-over service. While cheap services might seem great, they create a multitude of issues for content creators that result in headaches and stress. It may seem risky in the short term, but investing in a more expensive voice actor helps the voice-over industry and improves your work’s overall quality. As with any service, be sure to research before choosing a voice actor. It may seem impossible, but creating your dream film is well within reach!
