The AI Voice Over Disruption
I just read the voice over survey published by Mony Ranaan of Voice Crafters. You may be thinking, "Do we need another voice over survey? NAVA puts out out an amazing, comprehensive survey each year!"
And they do. I've been using NAVA's surveys to gain all kinds of insight into the state of the voice over industry for the past few years. The Voice Crafters survey complements the NAVA survey quite nicely.
The big difference is that the Voice Crafters survey asks more AI-centric questions and the people who took this survey, while fewer in number than the NAVA survey takers, are more scattered around the globe so it gives more insight into the international voice over scene.
With all that in mind, this is what I gleaned from the survey...
My Voice Crafter Survey Observations
73.9% of voice actors have definitely or probably lost work to AI.
71.8% say their rates stayed flat or went higher over the last three years.
Of the actors who definitely lost work to AI, 29.4% raised their rates anyway.
This tells me that AI is lowering voice over gig volume without lowering price because AI seems to be eating the high-volume, low-tier work that Online Casting Sites originally created. Companies now using ElevenLabs or Synthesia are not posting casting notices on P2P's anymore, they just generate the audio themselves.
In other words, voice actors lost a lot of work but the rates of the work they're keeping doesn't seem to be going down. When a Voice Seeker casts a human voice actor, they still have a decent budget. So it looks to me like a lot of low-tier work is gone but much of premium work remains, at least in the United States anyway.
The Non-English Rate Drop
The rate collapse actually seems to be happening in Europe. The survey shows that 39.8% of voice actors who do not narrate in English report falling rates, compared to just 21.3% of English only actors.
German rates fell for 50.0% of respondents.
Portuguese rates fell for 43.3% of respondents.
Spanish rates fell for 34.9% of respondents.
If you work in these markets, you're probably scrambling for gigs right now.
Is AI The New Pay-To-Play?
Actually, I think it's the exact opposite.
Pay-To-Play sites flooded the voice over market with new voice actors which lowered the price of gigs.
AI is kicking voice actors out of the voice over industry but isn't lowering the price of gigs. At least the gigs narrated by humans, that is.
Is Direct Marketing The Answer?
If your reaction to the AI onslaught is to send out even more cold emails and nothing came of it, that doesn't surprise me.
Over the past ten years or so, I've noticed that conventional Direct Marketing (cold emails, 7 touches, etc.) barely works anymore.
Harvesting contacts via Apollo.io and blasting out messages via LinkedIn and mass email schedulers is largely ineffective these days. Apollo itself said, and I quote,
"...today’s sales reps send 150% more emails than they did ten years ago. But the average rate of reply has decreased by 10% each year since 2014."
If AI is eating up all of the low-paying gigs and Direct Marketing strategies don't work anymore, what do we do?
The Answer To AI Voice Over Disruption
The voice over industry isn't dying; it's stratifying. The bottom tier belongs to the algorithms, but the top tier, where human connection, emotional intelligence, and actual acting skills matter, is still open for business. That means you need to be a better storyteller than ever! This is how to deal with the AI Voice Over disruption...
Consider more voice over training
Consider more non-voice over training like improv, singing, or even standup comedy
Consider focusing your marketing efforts on new genres that aren't as affected by AI
Consider joining other casting sites to increase audition volume
Consider thinking about yourself and the voice over industry in new ways
If you want to build a more specific strategy, book a Strategy Session!
This article is designed for professional voice actors seeking help to navigate the AI driven changes in the voice over industry.
As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011.
He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of.
When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.
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