Let’s consider how to become a voice actor today, and in the course of the discussion, we will also look into how to get highly paid voice acting jobs in the shortest while possible.

Thanks to technology, gone are the days when becoming a voiceover artist you had to work in large recording studios in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, London, etc., or attend professional, expensive voice coaching classes.

With the infiltration of advanced and mobile technology, you can learn how to become a voice actor, work from home, and still get high-paying jobs from studios, through their agents, or direct freelancing.

You can train your voice to become in high demand using voice training apps, online courses, and practice demo scripts. No more do you need a mini studio at home, work in a large studio, or need any of those big audio workstations like the one below:

With just a mic, a headset, a laptop, and your voiceover (DAW) software, you can produce crisp, studio-grade, and exceptional audio recordings that are more than good enough for even Hollywood blockbusters.

We’re going to talk about all these today. But before going deeper into how to become a voice actor, let’s take a look at the following subheadings:

Who Is a Voice Over Artist or a Voice Actor?

Voice actors or voiceover artists are creative artists who lend their voices to video production, narrations, and commentary.

These may be voicing for an explainer video, online webinar, animated films, television shows, documentaries, sports commentary, TV/radio commercials, video ads, and more.

Usually, voice actors are given a script to read from. In sporadic cases, they’re expected to voice on the go (this requires lots of training and, of course, cues from showrunners/producers), usually seen in live sports commentary.

Can Anyone Become a Voice Actor or Do I Need a Unique Voice?

Absolutely, anyone can become a voice actor.

While a unique voice like that of legendary Morgan Freeman may set you apart and give you a sharp edge in getting noticed, it’s not in any way a requirement.

In fact, I beg to differ; a ‘too unique’ voice might even slim your chances of getting jobs if your voice is instantly recognizable.

A good voice artist must be able to blend the voice, adapt and mimic the character they’re tasked to perform, and also be able to switch pitch, tones, and general sounding on demand.

Most of the commercially viable voice actors I know have a good voice, a sweet voice, I would say, and anybody, I mean anybody, can make their voice sound sweet with just a little training; it doesn’t come naturally.

How to Become a Voice Actor

Once you’ve decided to become a voice actor, you must know you’ll need to arm yourself with at least a basic knowledge on 

• Audio recording
  
  
• Audio editing
  
  
• Audio mixing, using FX presets, and more.
  
  
• Self-motivation because many times, you’ll feel like you’re losing it but being able to motivate yourself and keep going is a priceless tool
  
  
• In marketing, you need to know how to push your demo reels, put yourself in the marketplace, and get jobs (we’ll talk about this more later).
  
  

With this knowledge, the first and foremost thing is to put together the essential tools for your new career.

• A good microphone
  
  
• A good headset
  
  
• A computer (any is good)
  
  
• A smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S and Note series or Apple iPhone recommended, you’ll see why later on this blog post)
  
  
• With a voiceover (digital audio workstation software), you can go from easy ones like Audacity (my favorite especially for simple projects) and GarageBand to more advanced ones like Adobe Audition, Nuendo, Reaper, FL Studio (my second favorite), and so on.
  
  

Once all these are placed, here are all the different market categories for voiceover; you can either become a full-stack and master it all or focus on specific niches.

• films
  
  
• animation/cartoon films
  
  
• TV programs
  
  
• Commercials and video ads
  
  
• radio or audio dramas
  
  
• video games
  
  
• audiobooks
  
  
• documentaries
  
  
• IVR phone systems
  
  
• TV and Radio promos
  
  
• training / e-learning
  
  
• podcasts

 I encourage you to master all, it’s the same thing, just a little diversity in exception to animation/cartoon films, but you’ll get jobs easier.

In animation/cartoon files, you’ll need to master the art of adapting your voice to characters which can be pretty challenging.

Now, to begin your training in earnest, search for and enroll in a voice acting class:

Voice Acting Classes

Voice acting classes may sound like only something an aspiring single should enroll in, but that’s wrong; your career needs your voice to be at peak performance just as much as the singer, if not even more, since you’ll need to adapt differently to different characters or requirements of your clients.

So if anybody needs these voice training classes or a voice acting coach even more, it’s you.

We have detailed blog posts on voice acting classes and voice coaching here.

You can search for “voice acting classes near me” on Google to find voiceover classes in your earlier and get online voice coaching from professional voice coachings and expert voiceover artists.

Some of the excellent voice acting lessons and courses can be found on Udemy, and other educational portals; here are just a few of the recommended ones:

• Be A Voice Actor
  
  
• VoiceKickstart
  
  
• VoiceOver Masterclass
  
  
• Voice-over Acting Plus
  
  
• VoiceRecord
  
  
• Christina Aguilera’s Masterclass
  
  
• Voice Over Training on Skillshare

Voice Acting Warm-Ups and Mobile Training

At this time, you would have begun your training in earnest, testing out many things, recording voices, editing, mixing, playing with different software, and getting the hang of it.

It’s time to set yourself apart.

And what sets you apart from the rest of the other voiceover artists is your training; you need to advance your training, which means intense warm-ups, intense exercise, and practice.

You must start practicing loud with any script you can lay your hands on.

Edge Studio has the most extensive voiceover practice scripts library I’ve, over 5,000 voice-acting scripts in English and Spanish; Check Edge Studio voice acting practice scripts library.

Voices also have good voice acting practice scripts.

And here are voiceover scripts from voiceactorwebsites.com.

With this combination, you can take your training to the next level and practice every hour of the day if you want.

Now, remember the smartphone we talked about? Here are two reasons you need it.

• If you’re on the go and need to record/edit/mix voiceover fast, you’ll need these mobile apps that serve as your mini digital audio workstation on your phone.
  
  
• And secondly, when doing your practice, training, and warm-up, these apps below will help you become 10x better.
  
  
• TwistedWave
  
  
• Vocal Warm-Up
  
  
  
• Wave Editor
  
  
  
• Singer’s Friend
  
  
• Voice Builder
  
  
• Perfect Your Pitch
  
  
• Warm Me Up
  
  
  
• Script Rehearser 
  
  
• Voloco
  
  
• Vocal Warm Up Android
  
  
• AudiosDroid
  
  
• VoiceEase 2
  
  
• SwiftScales
  
  
• Vocal Pitch Monitor
  
  
• Vocal Exercises
  
  
• Sing Harmonie

How To Start Your Voice Acting Career and Get Highly Paid Voice Acting Jobs.

After your training, you’re now ready to launch your career. Awesome. And I know you want to be a highly paid voice actor.

It doesn’t matter that you’re only 1 month in the business; that’s BS.

Time and age don’t count in this business; all that matters is that you present yourself as a professional, and you’ll see businesses and corporates lining up to pay you big bucks even if you don’t have an agent.

Obviously, one of the easiest ways to get high-paying voice acting jobs is to get an agent who will scour around the country and jump to every studio and movie set to find you a job, but that is purely conventional and can be pretty costly, plus you’ll always be at the mercy of your agent.

Or you can join a popular voiceover agency that will have you up in their catalog; it works well, too, as they already have industry connections, contacts, and a vast client base ready to send jobs to them.

But if you’re in a sticky and you’re not seeing any of these 2 options panning out, especially as the first 2 might require you to have lots of experience etc., you can still launch your career yourself, look professional and score dozens of high paying jobs.

The first and most important thing is to set up a website/online portfolio that presents you just how you want (a darling voiceover expert everybody wants to hire).

Here are the websites of other artists to inspire you

• https://www.lauraschreibervoice.com/
  
  
• https://www.mikecoopervoiceover.com/
  
  
• https://timbickvoiceover.co.uk/
  
  
• https://heathercosta.com/
  
  
• https://www.debbiegrattan.com/
  
  
• https://neilwilliamsvoiceover.com/
  
  
• https://lizdrury.com/
  
  
• https://kimhandysidesvoiceover.com/
  
  
• http://garytiedemann.com/
  
  
• http://www.staceypaige.com/
  
  
• https://www.alexiakombou.com/
  
  
• https://www.davidgilbertvoiceover.com/
  
  
• http://ginamellotte.com

You can do this yourself, set up a free WordPress site, get a WordPress theme that fits what you want on www.themeforest.net, and customize it to your test.

And don’t forget to advertise your site.

Voice Over Demo Reels

This is important; people want to hear your voice and feel its impact on their project before hiring you.

Create many voiceover demo reels and make sure to have them handy ready to send to clients and on your website.

Voice Acting Auditions

Also, search for auditions near you and be sure to attend them; most auditions pay the most.

This is where self-motivation matters. Don’t let yourself be intimidated because you’re new or meeting people in audition who’s had their career for years; in voice acting, it means almost nothing; the new guy might be the best guy for the job,

Voice-over is an art; every artist is unique, your voice is unique, and you have no competition other than yourself; your voice already sets you apart; be creative with it.

And when you fail to land the job, don’t worry… you’re still better than the dozens of other voice actors who didn’t get that job; your voice is better suited for another project.

Places to Find Jobs for Voice Over Artists

If you don’t want to struggle to attend auditions (online and offline), you can start getting jobs immediately by making yourself and your talents available in the instant marketplace.

The gig economy is a multi-billion dollar industry, and that’s a great thing for you; it means your skills will get you lots of jobs.

For example, on Fiverr, considered among the top 3 gig economy platforms, Voice Over is regarded as the most popular gig.

And here’s an example of voice actors successfully selling their voiceover services there.

12,000+ reviews mean this actor would have sold anywhere from 15,000 – to 40,000 voiceovers; as you know, only a handful of buyers eventually write a review.

1,000+ reviews mean he would have sold 2,000 – 5,000 of his services.

23,000+ reviews mean this female voiceover artist would have been hired at least 25,000 – 50,000 times, if not more, for voiceover jobs. 

Her most nominal charge is $10; this increases as the length of the voiceover increases, and most times it does, but let’s assume all her gigs were flat at $10; that still puts her at over $230,000 revenue, and that’s just counting from her reviews alone (not actual orders) or total revenue from her all that gigs.

4,000+ reviews mean this voice actor would have been hired 5,000 to 10,000 times for this voiceover job.

And it goes on; thousands of voiceover artists on Fiverr have been hired at least 100 times for a job.

So here’s a list of websites you can enlist your services and start making a living with your voice asap

• Fiverr
  
  
• Voices.com 
  
  
• VoiceBunny.com
  
  
• Voice123.com 
  
  
• Upwork
  
  
• Voiver.com
  
  
• PeoplePerHour
  
  
• VoiceOvers
  
  
• AirGigs
  
  
• Voquent
  
  
• VOPlanet
  
  
• Guru
  
  
• Freelancer
  
  
• AffordVoice
  

Get yourself enlisted on these websites, get their mobile apps and set notifications, and scour and apply for jobs; you’ll see many jobs, probably more than you can handle.

Voice Over Artist Salary

How much do voice actors make?

Well, it differs… as I’ve always said, this job is an art, not science. Your earnings will depend on your creativity, masterful skills as an artist, and marketing prowess.

But Voice artists on average earn $50,000 – $250,000 per annum. 

Conclusion

At this juncture, you must have learned and understood how to become a voice actor and get highly paid voice acting Jobs with little or no stress. If there is any problem, don’t hesitate to use another comment box.