'Why do some Voice Actors charge more?' is a question we hear frequently from customers and even some voice actors.
The simple answer – you pay more for experience.
Can a voice really change that much with experience?
YES! And we can prove it.
We reached out to our international community of voice actors and Kavesan Pillay was kind enough to demonstrate how much his voice has changed over the last 6 years. It's an incredible difference.
Check out the sample audio below to hear it for yourself:
You can clearly hear the difference. His older samples at the start sound inconsistent and lack presence.
Big thanks to Kav for putting this excellent demonstration together.
How Kav got started
Kav started out on campus radio while studying Marketing at the University of Cape Town. He got a position in the station's production team and started recording voice-over for show jingles, imaging and station's adverts.
The inexperienced sounding promo voice is what you can hear at the start of the audio sample above. Kav admits looking back now as a pro: “I should have stuck to studying!”.
Fast forward 6 years, and he's now a professional voice actor with his own home recording studio and regularly voices commercials for international brands. He doesn't regret the work he did in his younger days and says, “Hey, everyone has to start somewhere. It's where you end up that's the real story to tell.”.
We couldn't agree more.
So, why pay more?
Whilst every voice actor has their own method for calculating what they consider a fair voice-over rate for the job, it's clear what you get by paying more.
Experienced voice actors who train regularly will captivate the attention of the audience for longer.
This is super important to bear in mind for commercials and is proven to result in more engagement in your content. A professional voice-over will give your branded content more likes, shares, followers and ultimately more sales!
It may be tempting to skimp on the voice-over budget, but never do this if you want to be taken seriously. The cost of hiring a professional voice actor will pay for itself many times over.
Share your thoughts on this subject by tweeting @voquent.
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