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VOICE OVER CAREER Voice Over Casting Pivots To Older Voices: If Your Sound Is 40+, The Market Is Calling August 11, 2020  By J. Michael CollinsVoice Actor, Coach & Producer Young. Fresh. Hip. Current. Real. Gen Y. Gen Z. Millennial. If you've been around the voice over industry for more than a week
you've probably learned those terms by heart. They are the adjectives
that have dominated casting for the past five years, as buyers have
flocked to youthful talent with the sound of the 18-34 generation that
is so heavily targeted, especially in advertising. Indeed, many middle-aged and senior talent who have entered the
market in the past decade with golden voices and enunciation to spare
have been shocked to find demand for their dulcet tones on the wane, and
have struggled to understand why experience and gravitas no longer
seemed to fit the majority of casting specs. UNDER-30 TALENT DOMINATED The world has been tumultuous for awhile, but with an economy that
was generally doing well, low unemployment, and few large-scale concerns
other than daily grumbles about politics or corporate greed, the order
of the day for the better part of the twenty-teens was chill, casual,
and relaxed. Less-is-more dominated the voice casting zeitgeist, and the
fresher and less intentional your reads the better. Talent under 30
owned castings in broadcast genres, and were making strong inroads into
even traditionally weighty fields like Corporate Narration, E-Learning
and Medical Narration. Then 2020 happened. OLDER VOICES BACK IN DEMAND With one terrifying headline after another
emerging from early in the year, the voice over industry hit an
inflection point unlike anything I've ever seen. Indeed, for a period of
time in March, as the COVID pandemic was new and beyond frightening,
demand for younger talent came to very nearly a screeching halt.
Suddenly every spec was 35-65, warm, reassuring, calming, and
authoritative. Zoomers got ghosted by buyers across the genre spectrum.
Under-30s were sitting in front of their 416s waiting for calls from
agents that just weren't coming. It was like a switch had flipped. Since the dark early days of the crisis the industry has pivoted back
to a middle ground, but one trend remains clear: Older talent are more
in demand right now than at any time in the past decade. The average
casting brief I see currently is 35-45, whereas just six months ago it
was heavily 18-30. There are more jobs looking for 40-65+ talent than at
any time in recent memory. Fortunately for younger talent, fatigue with
the haunting tone of so many crisis spots has shifted a good deal of
work back in the direction of the younger set, but there is a new
balance that I expect will last for some time. If your sound is 40+, this is your moment. The market is calling. Are you prepared to answer?
As for you youngsters ... us middle-aged folks are happy to see you booking again, but please ... stay the hell off of our lawn. --------------------------- ABOUT J. MICHAEL In more than 20 years as a professional voice actor, J. Michael Collins has worked with many of the world's largest companies, brands, sports leagues and organizations - in both the classic agency-based VO world and online casting marketplace, where he has become a leading authority. He is also recognized as an industry-leading voice over coach and award-winning demo producer, and is a multi-time Voice Arts Award nominee and winner as voice actor, demo producer, script writer and casting director. Email: jmichael@jmcvoiceover.com Web: www.jmcvoiceover.com CLICK HERE FOR MORE HELPFUL VOICE OVER CAREER ARTICLES |
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The first time I saw an audition come my way with "50-70" in the specs, I admit it took me completely by surprise and I was gobsmacked to realize--hey--that's ME!!!
I got over it. I didn't book that (but ended up on avail), but then I started getting a slew of these auditions.
Let's keep 'em coming!