In the big world of voice over, especially in the USA, there are multiple companies and individuals who advertise themselves as professional demo makers. A demo is required to get started in the voice over business and as you grow in the business you expand to different genres of demos. You never have a mixed genre demo. Each demo should be dedicated to one type of audio, like commercial, promo, narration, medical, even political demos need to be one party or the other, never a mix of democrat and republican.
Frequently talent watching their budgets find places or people to create their demos and the end result is not always a pleasing demo. Does it need to be pleasing? Yes, because your demo(s) are a showcase of your abilities and range along with your personality, which always is important in voice over.
Things to consider when you need a new voice over demo:
- A new voice over talent should never get a demo until they have had coaching from a reputable coach. This coach will determine when a voice talent is ready to start recording their demo. It is never a situation where you pay X amount and you get a demo in a week.
- Research the client’s overall rating. Most sites have Google or other ratings of their business services
- Check bbb.org because at times clients may have a communication with the Better Business Bureau about demo producers, some information could be great, some might now.
- Go to the creator’s website and listen to the sample demos they have on hand. How do they sound to you? Even if they sound good to you, check the talent’s names on the demos to see how their business is going on their personal websites. Do you recognize any of the sample demo’s names as successful talent in the industry? You should, that’s a sign of who the successful talent get demos from.
- If you are in any voice over groups or social media pages, ask around.
- You get what you pay for. If you’re weight a $1600.00 demo vs a $2400.00 demo, find out the difference.
- Never use pre-written existing scripts that are actual ads. This is illegal. All scripts for your demo legally need to be custom written for you. You cannot take an ad that is already an ad and have that as a demo on your demo reel.
The demo mills and scams around the country exist and frequently beginning and mid-level talent are taken advantage of a poor quality demo with no range, personality, direction or production applied to the end audio. Many scammers have a stack of scripts and have you choose 6 of them. You read them with little direction and then they plop some random music behind them and voila you are now a voice over talent. WRONG. This is not how you get a voice over demo. This is a poor example of how to showcase your voice.
In today’s world, every talent has to invest not only in the basics of coaching and a starting demo, preferably a commercial demo, but the talent need to create a space at their home to create their actual home studio. Your home studio must be a very padded place with no echo. There are professionals who can test your studio for sound so you provide the best sound when auditioning for projects.
In the world of the entertainment industry, remember that whether you are a voice over talent, actor or model you are also a big risk taker. There are no guarantees in this industry, only lots of work and unfortunately lots of people around to scam you out of your money. Be cautious, and do your research before locking in on a decision for services.