Let’s face it, casting a voice over can be a frustrating. In this blog series, we'll take a look at voice over casting sites and give you pro tips for casting voice overs and hiring voice actors so you can cast voices quickly and effectively.

Casting Voice Overs

No matter if you are new to hiring voice actors, or if you’ve booked voices online before, you might find the process a tedious and time-consuming hassle. I feel you. I have spent thousands of hours casting voice overs online. It can be nerve wracking to plow through hundreds of websites to track down the perfect voice for your client by deadline. To help make casting voice overs faster and easier for you we will explain the different kinds of vo websites and give you helpful tips to navigate through all the voice choices out there. Over the next few blogs I will share a bit of what I have learned in my fifteen years of hiring voice actors online. This information will help you determine what the good voice casting options are, and which sites to avoid. You will learn the different categories of online casting websites, which ones are the best fit for you, and the shortcuts I have learned to dramatically speed up your search for voice over actors.

A Breakdown of Voice Over Websites

Google voice over and you get millions of results. It's hard to know which site to use or who you can trust. There are so many types of voice over sites. Let’s break them down into a few general categories, then discuss each in depth.

Kinds of Voice Over Sites Include:

1. Top of Page Sites: These are the sites that pay to be among the top ads when you search "voice over." Usually these sites offer low prices that are visible in the ad. Careful! These sites can be sketchy. More on that soon.

2. Freelancer Sites: These are the sites where freelancers of any vocation can become members. There are voice actors on these sites, along with video people, audio editors, you name it. Voice actors are fiercely for or against these sites. We will take you to the frontlines of the freelancer voice site debate and find out if you really can and should book a vo for five bucks.

3. Pay-to-Play Sites: These are sites (and VOPlanet is one) where the voice actors pay a fee for a membership to the site. That is the “Pay-” part, and the “to-Play” means to work or get auditions that the sites find for their members. Some of the corporate P2P sites have been accused of unfair practices. We will discuss which P2P voice over sites you can trust, which ones you can’t, and why.

4. Voice Actor Websites: Every serious voice actor has a website where they can be hired directly. There are so many of these sites it is time consuming to go through them all. It can be worth the deep dive, and dive we shall into the deep waters of voice actor sites.

5. Voice Over Agent or Agency Sites: These are the portals run by professional voice casting agents that represent a roster of voice actors. You will find top talent here, but there are extra expenses to consider. We will take a close look at agents and agency sites and help you decide if hiring through an agency is right for your vo project.

These are the categories of voice casting sites you will encounter most often.

Next, we will begin breaking down each category of voice site, starting with the top of the page voice over sites. Can you really get the voice over you need for 39 bucks? Check back in here at VOPlanet.com soon for the next part of our voice over casting guide.

VOPlanet offers free voice over casting to professional voice actors. Casting voice over projects is free here at VOPlanet.com. All of our actors are vetted professional voice actors with broadcast quality studios. Cast your voice overs here.

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