FAQs

It’s surprising how many people have been complimented in this way at some point by their mum or their best friend or their best friend’s mum. Unfortunately it’s not that simple to create a career in voice-over just because you sound good. It takes special talent to become a professional voice-over artist. It’s a bit like saying that everyone who has lovely long fingers is destined to be a concert pianist… it takes considerably more skill than just being blessed with the basic attributes.

Professionals understand the smallest nuance or inflection can be the difference between working and waiting tables. They can readily turn a 40 second read into 30 seconds without it sounding faster. Successful v/o artists can get inside a script in minutes and deliver a perfect result almost immediately. Most importantly they can take direction and adapt their performance to it.

Professionals also know that performing voices is hard work requiring focus, seamless repetition and versatility along with the ability to be charming, gracious, on time and humble.

First thing to do is make yourself a demo – any recording studio can help you with this but it will, of course, cost you money.

Once you have a demo you should send it to recording studios and radio stations – try and get yourself professional work that you can include on your demo. Once again this is hard to achieve but perseverance and plain old determination will get you there.

If you have at least one professional job under your belt, it will add a lot of credibility to your demo when you send it to your potential agent.

There are also a range of courses that can help you with the craft like learning how to speak correctly & pronunciation, as well as acting, sight reading and learning how to take direction.

We require a professional voice over demo, as this is the tool that we most need to market your talent.

You also need to have experience with voice-overs. As we represent professional voice over artists, you would need to be an already established artist before we could give serious consideration to representation.

Our books ‘never close’ however we already have over 120 artists covering almost every conceivable voice type and are very selective about adding new people. Despite that, there are certain areas where we sometimes need new artists and if you happen to have the right voice for our customers we would welcome you.

We are so busy in the office casting jobs and taking calls from clients that we don’t have time to set up meetings to assess your potential. The best way for us to decide this is to listen to your demo, which you can email or post through to us. Please don’t drop into our office. With our experience, we can tell very quickly who has the right sound, skills and experience for us. We know what clients are looking for and where there might sometimes be a gap in our talent base.

If you have a 9am to 5pm job then this is not the industry for you. One important key to success is availability. Bookings by production houses and ad agencies are made with only a day or two’s notice (sometimes only an hour or two’s notice) so flexibility and availability are paramount.

We very rarely require artists residing overseas. Producers often prefer working with artists in the studio. You are more than welcome to send through your demo but it’s very unlikely we will be able to find regular work for you.

There are no joining fees however we take commission on every job you perform. The only cost to you is to regularly update your demos as needed by EM Voices.

All professional recording studios can create a demo for you. Although they do come at a cost, they’re the most important marketing tool for artists so think of it as an investment in the future of you career.