The voiceover industry’s roots can be traced all the way back to the 1900s, when radio was the medium of choice. However, it was only in the 1980s that voiceover turned into an actual profession. In fact, up until the year 2000, most people weren’t even aware of such an industry.
Despite its short tenure, the industry wasn’t one that escaped change. In fact, it has undergone its fair share of transitions and some of the most significant ones have occurred in the past few years.
Here is a list of the major changes that have taken place in the industry.
More Narration, Less Commercial
In the earlier days, radio commercials were the bread and butter for most voiceover artists. This eventually evolved into TV commercials. Finally, the industry saw work flowing in in the form of narration. The need for narration has grown over the years and as a result, the whole voice industry is focused on catering to this need.
Statistics indicate that narrations account for 92% of industry work and the numbers are likely to grow in the coming years.
Natural Vocal Style
A dominant or deep tone was the preferred option for voiceover narrations back in the day. This actually has a lot to do with the technology available back then. Voice artists had to be loud in order for the microphones to actually pick up their voices. In fact, this is why female voices were avoided. Women have high frequency voices which could not have been picked up clearly by microphones back in the day.
However, towards the 80s, things changed. A conversational tone was preferred over dominant tones. Also, media became personal as people started to buy their own stereos and TV sets, which created the need for a more intimate voiceover narration.
Women
As stated earlier, women weren’t a primary feature in the voice industry. There were several factors that kept them away including the inability of the microphones to capture high frequency voices. However, thanks to technological changes and also, socio-political changes, women have greater roles to play today.
In the voice industry, almost 50% of voice artists are women.
In fact, some advertisers and brands prefer to have female voiceover artists because of a wide range of reasons. For instance, some brands might cater to a predominantly female customer base, which makes it sensible to opt for a female voice.
ABOUT ROBERTA –
Roberta is a Professional AND award Winning International Voiceover Actor, as well as an accomplished on-camera actress and spokesperson. She lives in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area and is the owner of Roberta Kennedy Voice Talent and RK Productions, Inc.
She voices for companies around the world using her state of the art, broadcast quality studio. She’s hired for commercials, web demos and explainer videos, product infomercials, documentaries, promo/imaging, political ads, e-learning videos, podcasts, guided real estate tours, telephony/IVR projects, high profile corporate presentations, video games and character animation.
Her voice is described as: playful, contemporary, compelling, commanding, inviting, sultry and smooth. A hip edge with sophistication, bold, warm, interesting and engaging are also commonly used adjectives to describe her voice.
Her home studio is equipped with ipDTL, ISDN and phone patch capability with lightning fast turnaround times! A voiceover talent with over 20 years of voiceover acting experience, she offers a full range of voiceover services at highly competitive rates & will work with your budget to help you promote your business to new levels of excellence!
To request a personal quote or audition and/or to review more of her credits & demos, feel free to visit her website: www.robertakennedy.com – or mail her atroberta@robertakennedy.com. You can even give her a call on (408) 313-7202.