We're currently living in an era of the voiceover business where just a commercial demo is no longer enough. If your agent or client wants to book you for an eLearning narration gig, they'll want to hear samples of your narration reads. These samples need to be on a professional eLearning narration demo. The content isn't quite as exciting as the content on a commercial demo, but no less critical. The eLearning market has exploded with opportunity.
If you're interested in doing animated characters, your goal should be working towards a character demo. You never want to put a bunch of character reads on a commercial demo. Niche-based demos are becoming the norm and the more you have, the more target markets you can cover.
Think about all of the different genres out there. Commercial, eLearning narration, documentary narration, video game character, IVR, TV promo, radio imaging and even theme park promos! Theme park announcements have become a niche for me in the past five years.
When launching your voiceover business, you will want to arm yourself with plenty of demos to cover these various genres. For example, you wouldn't want a client to ask you for a character demo and then not have one! So do yourself a favor and work with a coach on various genres. They will help you decide what your strengths are and what kind of demos you should have.
Multiple demos on your website are a great idea. You never know when a client may run into your website looking for the right voice for their project. For example, if they're looking for an eLearning narration sample and you only have a commercial demo on your website, they will leave your site and search for the next talent they find.
I've mentioned this in other blogs but I can't stress enough how important it is to get coaching upfront before you record your demos. All of your reads on the demos need to sound like real gigs! The performance must sound convincing, whether it's a commercial, eLearning narration or an animated character. This is what books you work and gets you on talent agency rosters.
Clients and talent agents have zero interest in DIY demos unless you have proven production and audio engineering experience. Even then, you will still need coaching upfront to get your reads down!
If you're interested in coaching with the UVT coaching team and getting professionally produced demos, please visit our coaching programs page and email us through this website.