Voice Overs are a Hot Industry

Sometime in 2009 I met my first voice over professional. I’d never met somebody who did voice overs before that day. I’d never even given a second thought to the voice over profession. In fact, I barely knew it existed. Sure, I’d heard voices on commercials, and on documentaries, and in video games, but I never gave a second thought to how the voice over was selected or produced. (To learn more about voice overs visit www.suchavoice.com)

I met this girl who did voice overs for a living, though, and I could see the twinkle in her eyes when she spoke about her livelihood. She clearly loved what she did. Within a few weeks, I met a second person who did voice overs in New York City. Then, as I interviewed for a new sales job that I had some interest in for some time, I discovered the person whom I was replacing had left the position to pursue a career in voice overs.

The final straw for me was when another former coworker of mine called me one day to tell me she had gotten into the voice over business, and that I should consider it too. “There’s a great opportunity here,” she told me. “How would you feel about a change?”

She told me to go to www.suchavoice.com and to watch a 34 minute video to learn about the profession and the company she was working with. I decided to look into it, and I was amazed at what I saw.

The sheer size of the industry was surprising to me. The Voice Over industry is in the $15 Billion + range, and the rate of annual growth has hovered around 10% annually for the past 5-7 years. $400,000 in ad revenues are generated annually from pod-casts alone. Podcasts didn’t even exist 10 years ago did they?

The audiobook industry grew exponentially in 2008. Why did that happen? Oh yeah, the iPhone was introduced to the marketplace in 2007. The video game industry has continued to thrive in the past ten years too, and now many school systems are issuing IPads in place of textbooks to students. What does the curriculum on these IPads look like? Well, it’s voice over narrated video tutorial programs of course.
I was hooked. I interviewed for a business development position with Such A Voice and for the past three years I’ve worked with voice over talents, audio engineers, coaches, and industry professionals. I’ve gone through the learning process, made my own demos, and I’ve even done a few voice over projects myself. Every day, I speak to people aspiring to do something for a living that is fun, in demand, and that pays a decent buck. Voice overs are an obvious choice, especially for those seeking to do something on their own turf and their own terms.
The business is fun, relatively simple, and growing like gangbusters. Basically, the voice over profession encompasses everything an entrepreneur looks for when getting into a new industry. Low overhead, geographically limitless opportunities, and incredible tax deductions don’t hurt either.
What I find interesting is that for the past 10 years the news media has reported about a slow economy, high unemployment, little economic growth, and few opportunities. All the while, the voice over industry provides substantial opportunities to those who pursue it.

So why don’t more people pursue voice overs? I guess you just don’t know what you don’t know. Voice overs are an invisible profession to most people. It’s like the air we breathe. We don’t think about it. We just breathe it. Most of us are inundated with hearing hundreds of voice overs every day. We’re simply not present to the occurrence.

If anyone has ever told you that you have a great voice. Or even if you simply enjoy speaking, reading and communicating then a new or additional career could be right around the corner. Visit us at www.suchavoice.com for more information.

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