THE 4 HOT Voice Over Genres in 2024 and the 3 that ARE NOT

The voiceover industry is experiencing significant changes due to the rise of AI and ongoing strikes. 

However, there are still opportunities for human voice actors in certain genres. 

Audiobooks, e-learning, animation/video games, and commercials are hot genres that continue to rely on human narrators. On the other hand, telephony/IVR, simple narration, and audio description/localization are not as in-demand and are being taken over by AI. 

To navigate this changing landscape, voice actors should diversify, continuously learn, embrace technology, build relationships, create their own content, and stay adaptable.

Takeaways:
The demand for audiobooks and human narrators is high, despite AI's presence.
E-learning and educational content offer plenty of voiceover work.
Animation and video games still rely on real human actors for character voices.
Commercials value authenticity and trust, making human voice actors essential.
Telephony/IVR, simple narration, and audio description/localization are being taken over by AI.
Voice actors should diversify, continuously learn, embrace technology, build relationships, create their own content, and stay adaptable.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, the voiceover industry is like aroller coaster on steroids right now.
What with the generative AI boom and therecent SAG -AFTRA and current ongoing
never -ending ACTRA strike and some otherfactors.
There's a lot being shaken up right now.
So you're here because you want to figureout what genres, what areas of voiceover

(00:20):
to focus your energy on and maybe someareas where maybe you should pump the
brakes a little bit, right?
So let's jump in and break it down.
No BS, just the facts.
First of all, let's address the bigartificially intelligent elephant in the
room, AI and synthetic voices.
AI is here and it ain't going away, buthere's the kicker.

(00:41):
It's not all doom and gloom, kids.
Yeah, AI can spit out a...
relatively decent imitation of a humanvoice, but there still is and will
continue to be a demand for real humanvoice actors moving forward.
So let's cut this apart a little bit,genre by genre, and let's start with the
genres that are hot right now.

(01:01):
Number one, audiobooks.
Still a gold mine.
Audiobooks continue to be hotter thanhabanero underwear.
The demand for audiobooks has never beenhigher, and guess what?
The demand for human narrators has neverbeen higher.
AI has made some inroads into audiobooksand listeners are not happy.
They can tell the difference and they'renot happy with the difference.

(01:21):
If you have a passion for books, a passionfor storytelling, be it fiction or
nonfiction, then by all means go ahead andplant your flag young man or young woman
or young non -binary person.
Why are audiobooks still hot?
Well, the market has never been hotter.
The market is expanding like never beforeand more people are listening than ever

(01:41):
before.
Second, audiobook listeners want a humanvoice that can convey nuance, and they
know AI has not mastered that yet.
Look, there's no question AI is going totake a portion of the audiobook market,
but it will take the low end, the cheapend, the low ball projects where authors
and rights holders, quite frankly, eithercan't afford or don't really care about

(02:05):
quality.
Skilled, talented actors who can tell agreat story.
who can weave a great narrative, who canhave range and can separate out personas
and characters and be consistent and realand human and authentic will continue to
work on well -written books.
Number two in the hot column, e -learning,corporate training, and educational

(02:26):
content in general.
In short, the work is there.
It always has been there.
It was accelerating and growing before thepandemic and then the pandemic threw a big
old gasoline can on that fire.
Doesn't matter whether it's corporatetraining or online courses or educational
YouTube channels.
There's plenty of work out there ineducational content.

(02:48):
As we said, COVID poured gas on the e-learning, corporate training, educational
content fire and it literally changed theway we learn so many things now.
And secondly, professional...
E -learning providers and producersunderstand and know that if they want a
quality product, if they're going to keeppeople engaged in the educational content,

(03:10):
that there is no substitute for anengaging, clear, authentic, real human
voice.
Now the big exception here is com -
compliance, and legally mandated corporateand governmental training.
Things where organizations are justchecking a box and quality really doesn't
matter.
They just need to get this piece done tosatisfy some either legal or governmental

(03:34):
or otherwise compliance requirement.
And a lot of that work is going to go toAI if it hasn't already.
Hot genre number three.
Animation and video games, i .e.
character work.
Now overall, animation and video games arethriving like never before.
Now it's true that the SAG After Strikelast year, the current ongoing never

(03:58):
-ending Actress Strike, and maybe a littlesoftness in the economy is affecting the
video game industry.
That's...
I don't dispute that.
But I do think it's relatively temporaryoverall, and in the big picture it will
bounce back.
Animation fans and gamers still wantauthentic characters.
voiced by real human actors.
I mean, good god, we have entireconventions for this stuff, right?

(04:21):
Where the voice actors are literally rockstars to those fan bases.
Not to mention the global market foranimation and video games is still
expanding.
And with that comes more opportunity.
And last but certainly not least in thehot column, commercials.
Human.
Cells.
Yes, AI has made some inroads intocommercials, especially on YouTube.

(04:43):
You don't have to watch YouTube for longerthan about 10 minutes to find an AI voice
selling you something like solar panelsthat the government can buy for you.
In the big picture, though, commercialsstill rely heavily upon human voice
actors.
As one casting director told me, these aremany films.
The production values are very high andquality matters.

(05:05):
And from a perception standpoint, brandsthat value authenticity and trust in their
brand, not to mention relatability, theyunderstand what human voice actors bring
to the table.
It's called connection.
They know they've got much more creativeflexibility because human actors are able
to achieve much more depth of emotion,layering of emotion, a degree of nuance,

(05:29):
especially in high value, well -writtencampaigns and spots.
Try directing AI in a la -
session.
If you can develop the skills tounderstand backstory and subtext, if you
can break a script down and understandthings like stakes and motivation, and if
you can deliver authentic, natural,unpredictable, messy human performances,

(05:53):
there will continue to be more work thanyou can shake a script at.
All right, let's shift over to the not -so-hot category.
Number one, telephony and IVR.
AI is taking over.
The brutal truth is basic telephony andIVR, if you don't know what IVR is, it's
interactive voice response, what mostpeople call phone menus.

(06:14):
Those systems are being gobbled up if theyhaven't been already by AI even as we
speak.
Let's face it, a phone menu doesn'trequire a high level of acting chops or
emotional nuance.
Press 1 for accounting.
And that makes some prime real estate forAI and synthetic voices.
AI is cheap, and for those folks, it'sgood enough.
But don't feel bad, voice actors, becausethere's an entire legion of secretaries

(06:37):
and receptionists who -
paved the way so that you wouldn't be thefirst person to lose phone work to a
machine.
Number two in the not column, simplenarration.
I hate to say it, but simple,straightforward, dry narration is more and
more increasingly becoming handled by AI.
If it's a dry, information -heavy script,more clients are opting to at least try

(07:01):
AI.
And by the way, anecdotally, I'm hearing alot of cases where clients are coming
crawling back to voice actors becausethey're not having a good experience, at
least for now.
We're already seeing a lot of AI inYouTube and TikTok, especially in the
faceless channels.
That's because these shoestring creatorswho have tiny budgets...
They're saving what they can by engagingwith an AI or a synthetic voice rather

(07:25):
than paying a human.
Is AI better than a human voice?
Absolutely not.
But for some things, for some people, goodenough is good enough.
Now the sad part about this is that, andI've said this before, a lot of what used
to be developmental work for newer talent,the work they used to cut their teeth on
is increasingly going away, which meansit's more important now than ever before

(07:48):
to...
train voraciously and get really good atwhat you do before you start seeking work
because that easy stuff just isn't gonnabe there for you to cut your teeth on.
The flip side of that coin, the good newsis that AI will offload a lot of the
lowball, cheap, boring work that we didn'twant to do anyway.
Work that has historically been done onplatforms like Fiverr and Upwork and Voice

(08:13):
Realm and Voice Bunny and so on.
Number three in the not so hot column,
Audio description and localization.
Now some people may disagree with me onthis, but AI voices when it comes to audio
description especially, and we'll talkabout localization in a minute, it's just
as true for that, turbo charge,accessibility and more importantly,
efficiency.

(08:34):
AI can turn jobs around a lot faster thanhumans and they can make a lot more
content accessible to visually impairedaudiences.
Localization, of course it can generatelocalized audio tracks super fast, but
also,
in multiple multiple languages and thatcuts the time and expense that studios and
producers have had to put into workingwith human voice actors and at the same

(08:58):
time that approach builds their globalreach and their total addressable
audiences.
Now again where AI can handle thestraightforward drier stuff the more
nuanced visions and emotional
Context that needs to be provided in manyprojects for high quality audio
descriptions and high qualityLocalizations that still requires humans

(09:21):
again.
This means voice actors must must mustcontinue to work on our craft and refine
our skills and add that depth of emotionthat layering of emotion that
Empathy that AI lacks.
Alright, so now that we got the lay of theland, how do we navigate it?
Well, here are some strategies to not onlyhelp you survive, but to help you thrive

(09:43):
in this brave new weird, weird world.
Number one, diversify.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket,especially when it comes to which VO genre
you're going to choose to work in.
When you're a newer talent, take some timeto explore the different genres.
Find out what you're good at, what youenjoy.
what your coaches think you're especiallygood at, because that will be an

(10:05):
indication of what the market may thinkthat you're good at.
The more you diversify, the less you willtake a hit when one genre takes a hit.
Number two, continuous learning.
I cannot stress this enough.
You have to stay ahead of the curve, andthe only way to do that is by continuously
honing your craft.
Train with a reputable coach.
Take acting classes.

(10:26):
Take improv classes.
One of the best things you can do to soundhuman,
is to be a master of improv, learn newaccents and dialects, and keep up with
industry trends.
The more versatile you are as a voiceactor, the more you are setting yourself
up to be able to survive and to thrive.
Even better, be versatile beyond voiceacting if you have adjacent skills.

(10:48):
For example, video editing, graphicdesign, photography, social media
management, etc.
If you can solve multiple problems, infact, the more problems you can solve for
your client, the more valuable you become.
Third, hate to say it, embrace technology.
Do not fear it.
Said it before, AI ain't going away, soyou better figure out a way to work with

(11:09):
it.
How can you use AI tools to improve yourbusiness, simplify your workflows, super
serve your clients, or otherwise make yourvoiceover business better?
more efficient, save you time, save youmoney, etc.
Next, focus on building relationships.
In an increasingly automated and what hasturned out to be a less connected world,

(11:33):
we're really less connected with eachother.
The ability and the skill in buildingrelationships is one that is going to
become more important than ever.
Network with clients, network with peers,attend industry events, whether that's for
finding work or finding community, andbuild a strong
personal brand.
People hire people that they know andtrust.

(11:53):
So be one of those people.
Next, if and when you can, create your owncontent.
My God, we've got so many tools for this.
YouTube, podcasts, social media.
Hell, you can make your own feature filmwith an iPhone anymore.
You completely have the tools to createyour own content.
I gotta make a note.
Create own.

(12:14):
that not only builds your own portfolio,but it helps you connect with people,
maybe clients, maybe peers, maybe anaudience of your own.
My colleague, Canadian voice actor, JodyCringle, does an amazing job with creating
her own content with her podcast, AudioBranding.
If you haven't checked that out, it's agreat example of what I'm talking about.
I'll put the link in the description andshow notes.

(12:36):
And finally, man, stay adaptable.
This industry is in flux like neverbefore.
and that's only gonna get worse.
But with change comes opportunity.
Stay adaptable, keep learning, keepgetting better, and don't be afraid to
pivot when you have to.
The human voice, despite no matter what AIdoes, is still the most real, authentic,

(12:59):
and effective way that humans connect witheach other.
Doesn't matter whether you're narrating abestseller, whether you're voicing an NPC
in a video game, or...
educating students through e -learning.
There is a place for you in this business.
It's not going to be easy.
Things of value in life never are, butkeep your chin up, stay creative, keep

(13:22):
training, keep getting 1 % better everyday, and let's all make some beautiful,
authentic human noise in this business.
You can go to voPro .pro to get my Move,Touch, Inspire newsletter for voice actors
that comes out every week.
You can also get information on the VO ProCommunity and the VO Freedom Master Plan
where we teach voice actors how to markettheir services.

(13:45):
It's the only marketing program invoiceover with such stringent research and
development.
We didn't just throw it out there.
We brought it up to university standardswith a university consultant before we
even published it.
If you found value from this video, pleaseshare it with other voice actors so that
we can reach them, we can help them, wecan have a better, stronger industry with
more dialogue, more discourse.

(14:06):
more rational exchange of information andbuild this industry that we love so much.
Thank you for your support.
We really appreciate it and we'll see youback here again next week.