How to win voiceover audition

How to win voice-over audition

To win voice-over audition implement simple steps:

Oftentimes you win the auditions without knowingly participating in any. How is it possible, you may ask? Very simple the demo that you’ve posted online on your profile do the auditions for you.

Every time potential client plays it; you are compared to the other voice talents. And when a customer ordering a job from you, it is your voice just won the audition for you.

Your demo is your best promoter and agent. I will never be tired stressing it up the importance of making a voice-over demo that stands out. But what about the auditions posted online or called by an agent with many talents invited to participate. 

Understand the requirements

What is most important for the customer is you meet their requirements. And to succeed in this, you must read and feel the script and follow the notes posted for an audition.

Be sure to dedicate your attention to understand the intent of the job. Also, take into account who is the target audience and what message is being brought to them. Getting these points will allow you to focus on how to deliver your best voice, so customers see you as the best choice for their project.

Most importantly, this will allow you to become genuinely competitive. 

Understanding the customer needs will let you see the bigger picture beyond just the voice performance requirement. 

You will be able to make informed decisions when setting and justifying the price for the job.

Not always customers provide enough descriptions of their audition postings. That could leave someone puzzled and chose to guess what kind of read to deliver. For you, it should be an excellent opportunity to stand out.

Ask questions to find out what approach to take. You may need to find out what will be the target audience its age, and region. What kind of project is it an advertisement or educational? Knowing these and many other factors in advance will help you to make better decisions and affect your overall experience. 

I go more in detail further below what factors can affect your preparedness to succeed in voice-over audition.

In conclusion, make sure to follow their requirements. Read the notes, feel the message behind the script, your voice should sound as requested, and if there are not many guides for you to understand customer needs, do ask questions.

Stand out from the crowd

You don’t have to be the best in the world; and you just have to be better than other auditioned talents to get the job.

One of my customers shared with me that from her experience with the most prominent online platforms, only 20% of auditions are competitive. Meaning only one person out of five read the requirements, understood the subject, had a voice, age, etc. as requested, and their audio quality was okay. 

Pretty much all the basic stuff I explained on this website will help you get ahead of the crowd. It means you are already in the top 20% by just by following simple rules: have the right recording setup, pay attention to details and requirements, have a prompt response, produce a quality demo, or audio recording.

You must be competitive to stay in business. But what else essential actions you can take to lead the customer to make a favorable decision towards you.

You obviously can’t control everything, and there will always be circumstances beyond your control and understanding. I will focus on these later in the article. For now, let’s review how your audition can stand out of the few selected.

Clients make judgments pretty quickly. When clients listen to auditions, they are listening to many talents and make judgments within a few seconds. Many submissions are not played to the end as it becomes apparent those are not acceptable.

You want to make the right first impression from the very first seconds your audition should tell customers you are the right talent for their project.

For example, if audition is required slating, use the same read style that you will use in the audition because the producers will make judgments based on the slate. But if it doesn’t require slating, don’t do it.

The first line of the commercial is of utmost importance. 

That what the client hears first, it will be the first impression, and possibly a decision will be made right at that moment. Make sure you deliver the best right from the beginning. Record it the way you think it should be read. Then, listen to it and ask yourself if you are authentic, reading the way you intend for it to sound. Then re-record it and repeat the process until you feel like you’ve got the first line perfect. Everything else flows from that.

Deliver quality read

Following the perfect first line, the rest of the read should not be any different in the quality. The quality read is dependent on your understanding of the script and your voice sound. If you are sick, have dry mouth, or not in the perfect state, your read performance won’t be the best. Understanding and connecting with the script is explained above.

If you feel sick or you have a sore throat, you will not be able to deliver the best of your potential. If, in a reasonable time, you are not able to recover from it, send a note to the auditioner, why are you not participating in the audition. It will tell them to know that you are interested in receiving the projects. You may skip this one, but remain on the roster and will receive an invitation to another audition. It also put you in a good light and shows your professionalism and excellent communication skills.

But let’s say you have read and understood the requirements of the customer. You’ve built the connection to the message in the script, and you feel like you’re ready to deliver your best read. You are in a good mood, drank some water, and exercised mouth muscles and jaw. 

Record your read, but don’t send it right away to the customer. Listen to your voice first. Make sure you like how you sound and expressing the message. At this point, disregard any minor issues which can be taken care of with post-processing. If you don’t like something on the way you read, do another shot. 

Once you are satisfied with the read, consider one more thing. If it makes sense for the particular script to record a second version, do it. 

The customers will love to hear variations and your ability to deliver their messages. 

The reads should not be drastically different, that would add confusion and concern about how you understood the script, if at all. 

The second variation will provide your agent or customer sense of flexibility and allow them to manipulate the tone and speed of some passages to match their project requirements better.

Have demos ready

Make sure you have demos for your accent, different reads, or voices you can do. Keep the files organized and handy. 

Soundcloud would serve this purpose. You can upload files there and allow downloads under file permissions. Claim easy to remember and relevant link for your profile, then share links to your files with anyone who asks you about the downloadable demo. 

Also, include on social media profiles and email. It is not a bad idea to have the demos stores on the phone as well. Besides specifically made demo, upload some of the previous works too. 

Those can be very competitive parts of your portfolio, selling even better for you. 

Work that you completed before can show you from diverse sides and serve as proof of experience, which always helps customers to make a favorable decision towards you.

Respond quickly

Is there any benefit to submit your audition faster than others? The answer is it depends. 

You definitely don’t want to be between the last submitters. Because the client may already make their decision, even audition is still remaining open. That means your voice won’t be heard. Or the client may be reasonably tired from listening to other voices and won’t stay focused to perceive your perfect sounding. 

By submitting late, you put yourself in a worse position then you could be in. 

But does it mean you should be the first who submitted the audition to win any favor points? The first submission definitely does not guarantee you any extra favor points.

However, being among the early submitters will help you to stand out and may make your voice-over audition to be viewed as etalon if you performed on your best abilities. It is simply because your voice is compared to the fewest number of people, but instead the others compared to your voice. It may play a psychological trick in the customer’s mind. It will show your readiness as well, just stay consistent, and give enough attention and provide timely responses in communication.

How to stay on top and be in ready mode to respond to the customers without delay staying within a reasonable time? Develop a routine to stay informed about upcoming auditions.

Make sure to check notifications on the email and so on. Even form pay-to-play sites, you will receive the auditions. Yes, you are not going to be on the roster of the first to choose, but enough customers are exploring the new voice talents and expanding the circle of search. 

From you required a simple thing. Is to register on the portals, complete your profile to its fullness, and keep it up to date. 

See my overview of Top websites to find voice-over work

There is a place on the voice-over portals where they are trying to encourage speedy responses. It is voicebunny. The customers can submit a so-called speedy project where they see only three responders. Even if you decide to participate in such races, remember, do not sacrifice quality for speed. Take time to prepare for voice-over script and make How to prepare for voice-over script it your routine.

Set competitive price

When auditioned for a new job, you may see the cost of the voice-over already given by the client. Not always, you know the scope of work ahead of time, though. In the other auditions, the customer will ask for your quote. They may decide to list their budget, too, or may not. How would you price the voice-over work and stay competitive and don’t work for cheap?

First and foremost, you need to collect data about the order.

To know how to price voice-over, you need to know:

The number of words in the script. 

Knowing the length of the script, you can justify the price of your voice-over. It is a fairly simple calculation and the number of dollars per 100 or 10 words you should know. 

If you need any advice, go to Fiverr and see what the other charge.

The complexity of the role. 

Depending on what voice type you asked to use, it may cost you extra effort to produce quality voice-over. The commercials, even it usually short, will require you to review the read more carefully and be even meticulous to your work. If it is an audiobook, the compensation will be calculated per recorded hour. Then you have to know how the number of words and time of audio processing translates in the final length of audiobook. Here are some estimates of Voice-over industry trends.

Or the job can be educational audio. Which does not necessarily mean it will be easy. The stand-alone topic is the alphabet, colors, etc. for very young listeners. Such orders could be the hardest to do. They consume more time as your reading is not flowing quickly over the words in sentences, but instead, you focus on each word separately. You have to make more pauses. The pronunciation is very important as your listening audience will be children. You have to spell very clear. Those factors will drain you out quicker than if you would do any other type of recording.

Intended audience. 

You will get orders intended to be played to auditorium, in which the language of recorded audio is not native. These could be students in another country, learning the language you speak. In this voice-over, you will speak slowly and clearly as well, which will reflect on your time spent working on the project. Those you need to consider this factor as well.

The number of revisions. 

This option is explicitly or hiddenly present between you and a client anyways. Depending on the way how you connect with the customer through the online platform or directly, you will be obligated to provide revisions of your work. 

If you are recording in a professional studio, most likely, all the revisions will happen right away. But since there you would be paid hourly, it does not matter to you. However, when your client is coming from a freelance platform. 

Always think there will be a revision, no matter how good your work is.

Your decisions and approaches will be changing along as your voice-over career develops. You will learn the market and client demands, which will help you to have your personal preferences in setting the right price. 

The earlier you start working from home, the sooner you get your first money from voice-over jobs to your account.

Risks and rejections

I teach you on this website and in my course how to succeed in voice-over while working from home. 

You can learn how to minimize the number of things that can negatively affect your business in any way. I want you to have the knowledge and be prepared to enter to and grow in the voice-over industry with constant progression. 

But no matter how well you are prepared and how good you are, there can always be something beyond your control or make you doubt. Consider the following examples.

How to know if you’re really ready to record VO’s?

Initially, you will get the first response from some professional who’d listen to your demo and give feedback. It can be me if you choose to. Then ultimately, the marketplace decides – the clients. 

You should not take any initial responses as a definitive answer. You need to work the statistic. You have to respond to a lot of people and record voice for a lot of auditions before you get a job. Your statistics will be improving as your voice-overs will be better, and you gain credibility. 

I have no confidence in my current skills. How do I get confidence?

That is very common for everyone who is about to start a new thing. Will I get clients? Will they like my voice? Will I be able to make enough to return on my investment? Will I be able to get enough orders?

Yes, you will! If you learn how to approach, if you try, and if you stay persistent. Then you gain the most important asset, the experience. 

Stick your neck out and try it. Just be advised to make educated moves and decisions. Get the training to record your demo and audition for work. It is easier if you have the complex information and laid out steps. I have the exact steps you to follow to start your voice-over freelance income. This will make it safe before you step into the water.

Is there a chance to be a rip-off on the audition?

What if audition looks like a complete job? Some commercial scripts are super short. And Some auditions can be about 100-200 words long. You may have the concern that your voice will be formally rejected, but in fact, they will use it without your knowledge. 

You may consider protecting submitted audio for the audition by watermarking it. Adding any distractions to make recording unusable for commercial use. It is never a good idea. That would only hurt you. 

First of all, you can claim the unauthorized use of your voice if you know you did not sell the recording. So there is no need to worry, and it does not happen that customers would risk the project to save on the voice-over by stealing it.

But the more significant risk is by watermarking voice-over, you set yourself to the bottom of the list. It’s hard enough competing for a project, and you don’t want anything to be distracting the customer.

Even exceptions may happen, and someone will use your voice without your given consent; it is not worse your time worrying about this, you gain more when moving further faster, growing bigger.

How to deal with rejection?

Everyone’s voice-over audition has been rejected at some point. You will not be an exception, and this is part of the reality. Realizing this will help you deal with the rejection. 

There will be difficult times and times when you have a stockpile of orders and audition requests. But to deal with individual situations will help you to start with your expectations set lower or reasonably. It doesn’t mean you have to underestimate yourself. You just have to be careful how much you excited or confident in securing a job ahead of time. 

Many things could happen which are beyond your control; the project can be canceled or changed, so they need another type of voice. You’re not going to get all the jobs life is full of rejection. You must know you’ve done your part the best, and the rest is not bothering you.

Move on to the next audition, and to the next, then eventually, you will get the order. And the more you do, the more you get, the volume of auditions will turn into jobs. You will appreciate the jobs after rejections even more. Without it, you don’t have the satisfaction that comes when you get the job. 

And of course, you get better; you will secure more jobs as you stay active and complete the steps suggested in the voice-over from home guide.

What to avoid in voice auditions

There are a number of things under your control to prevent from happening in auditions. Avoiding obvious and less apparent mistakes increases your competitiveness.

  • Should you add music and or sound effects to your auditions? Definitely not, and it is standard practice not to do so. The client or project manager will pick the music if they need it for the project. They want to put your voice against their music choices. Most clients have a vision and plan with how they will use your VO.
  • Slate or not? It depends on where you are auditioning. On online platforms, you usually have your name next to the play button and, therefore, no need to say your name. The client wants to hear your voice on their script right away. Slate only when specifically asked. Because there are other ways to identify your read, you can include your name in the file name or file metadata.
  • Too big of a hurry. No matter if you are just starting and you have had only a few auditions over past time or if your inbox full of audition requests. Always take time to prepare and understand the details the client asks in the descriptions. It is not going to help you if you miss some requirements and then try to re-submit the audio again.
  • Every script is a story. And you need to read and understand it to connect with the script or with the audience. Disconnect with the script will stand out and be noticeable. That will immediately set you off the considered talents for the job. Show in your read how you feel the message. Emphasize what is important. It’s not about you sounding good but connecting with the audience what makes a difference.

Do every audition the best you can, and the results will arrive.