Everything You Need to Know About Voiceover Agents

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hey guys it’s DJ welcome back to the channel in today’s video I want to talk to you guys about voiceover agents this is something that a lot of newer voice actors and even you know not so new voice actors have a lot of interest in because uh if you’re taking your career seriously then Landing an agent whether it’s a national agent like a by Coastal agent in LA or New York or even a regional or a local agent is something that might be on your list of things to accomplish in your career and it is kind of a big step you know to get picked up by an agent if you can get paid to buy an agent then that is kind of a little bit of validation that perhaps you have something to offer the market now I’m gonna start this video by saying that an agent is not the be-all end-all for your career okay let me just get out the way now an agent is somebody who is essentially part of your marketing strategy they are another source of potential revenue for you as a voice actor okay so before we get into all the details about agents and stuff like that it really approached this level-headed guys okay if you get an agent does that mean you can suddenly lay on the couch and not do anything okay and just let the agent go through a riches your way that’s not how it works okay a lot of people um think that about agents and to be honest with you I had the same misconception early in my career now I’ve been doing voiceover full time for just over three years actually just past three years and I’m currently represented by three uh Regional Aid well two U.S Regional agents and one agent in Canada and I’ll be uh trying to finally get Coastal representation uh near the end of this year uh it’s been a long time coming and I think I’m finally ready for that I want to answer some of the questions that I had when I was you know considering getting an engine because there’s a lot of it’s not very clear exactly how to get an agent and on top of that listening to my agents as we you know just talk shop uh occasionally and hearing the things that they said about Talent submissions and why they say no to people or why they decide to say yes to somebody who may not have a lot of experience it gave me a lot of insight into you know what makes their world go and I think that’s important to understand if you are looking at getting an agent it’s important to understand exactly what an agent does what’s their day-to-day thing like that way you can understand that way you can understand where you the voice Talent fit in their you know overall picture and how you can make their life easier because it’s all about working together it’s a collaborative effort okay you do not work for an agent an agent does not necessarily work for you it’s more of a collaborative effort if that makes sense okay so first things first what does an agent do for a voice actor in a nutshell a voice actor’s agent’s job is to provide opportunities for the voice actor that they would not otherwise be able to get and they they do that they accomplish that by leveraging business relationships and Partnerships that they themselves or their agency as a whole um has nurtured and developed over the years um so when you land an agent you are not going to be guaranteed jobs and no agent ever can guarantee you a job and if an agent does say hey you should sign with me I can guarantee you work I’ll make you a millionaire uh run as fast as you can guys like I just run run the other [ __ ] way okay because this [ __ ] [ __ ] no agent can promise you work an agent can promise you opportunities in the form of auditions so using my agents as an example I get agent or I get auditions uh almost daily from my agents sometimes I get one sometimes I get three I mean you know sometimes I get as many as 10. sometimes it’s just it’s seasonal and it’s also you know depending on what’s going on in the world it’s it just changes okay and we’re all in this post-covered world and stuff so everything that I’m talking about is as the voiceover industry is today post covered because before covid the whole agent relationship was completely different as I hear from my mentors it was quite different and covet has kind of just turned everything on its head and changed the way we we work and voice uh voice acting community in the industry as a whole so if the agent decides to sign you they’ll be sending you auditions um on a pretty regular basis every agent is different I don’t know what their Cadence would be or how often they get copy from um producers and casting directors and stuff but essentially they have those relationships with those casting directors and producers and directors and they’ll contact the agent say hey we got this new spot coming up for you know Dawn dish soap uh you know send us your your top ten for this audition and they’ll send it to the agent and the agent will go to the roster and choose 10 or maybe even 20 uh talent that they think would fit that spec for that project and then after they get those 20 some odd auditions sometimes they don’t get to the full 20 so people don’t submit they make it 15 and they’ll choose the best 10 and then they’ll send those to the casting director and the casting director will go you know listen and shortlist and do callbacks and then decide which one they’re going to pick for the job not that being said that casting director may send or probably will send those uh specs that audition to multiple agencies and so you’re not just competing with the talent that’s on your agent’s roster you’re competing with Talent on multiple rosters across the United States and maybe even internationally depending on what the spot is for the client so understand that it is very competitive not only to get on the roster but it’s also highly competitive when it comes to trying to book work okay you have to you know really work and work on your skill we’ll talk about this a little bit later in the video but um really pay attention to your career and take care of your career through coaching and training that way you remain competitive and you can actually book jobs I mean creating getting auditions is great guys the agent’s doing their job if you’re getting auditions but you also got to do your part and make sure that you’re competitive to you know submit a really competitive audition okay so we’ll we’ll touch on that later in the video so just to clear that up finalize it an agent’s job is just to provide you with opportunities some agents can provide you with some opportunities some agents can provide you with a magnitude of opportunities um and we want to talk about management companies in this video but you know imagine managers do essentially the same thing and they’ll do this agents will do this work for you for a commission they don’t get paid if you don’t book if you books unless you book a thousand dollar job then they’ll get 10 or 20 or 15 whatever the rate is that you your contract will agree to to give to the agent for procuring that booking for you that’s what the Asian will get and they’ll take it out of your cut and then you’ll get the check cut to you or direct deposit to your account it’s pretty straightforward guys what do agents look for when they’re trying to decide what Bureau fit for the roster or not of course every agent is different but generally speaking agents want somebody who is professional all right I put that first because every agent that I’ve talked to um and interviews that I’ve seen on YouTube and webinars with agents interviews the first thing that always comes out of the mouth just want somebody who’s professional and that doesn’t mean like you wear a business suit it means that you carry your voiceover career like a business you approach it like a business not this Fly by Night I do it on the weekends as a part-time gig kind of thing and I’m not saying you can’t do like I’m not saying you can’t get an agent if you do voiceover part-time but you shouldn’t approach it as of like a like a one foot in one foot out kind of thing because the agent’s putting themselves 100 into sending you auditions and trying to book get you booked you should be doing the same thing reciprocating that same effort by giving your 100 answering emails on time and you know getting with the clients in a live director session on time you know giving good performances during the live director session with the client and and the agency or audio engineer or whatever and being available for revisions and pickups and all this other stuff that comes after the fact secondly obviously you got to be good man you have to be good you cannot just jump into this industry and just start killing it immediately I I know of one person who did that and even me my career started very fast I’m only three years in I’m already rep by three agents and I book very very well however I’m still not that it took me a while dude it took me about two years to really get my feet underneath me and some people it takes longer than that man you know some people just will never have you know a big agent represent them and that’s okay too there’s a plethora of regional agents that would be more than thrilled to take you on the roster but you got to be skilled enough to you know to catch that opportunity if it presents itself to you that’s what the agent’s looking for somebody who puts in the [ __ ] work okay not somebody who’s like hey throw me some work I’m gonna lay here on the couch and watch Netflix until you send me an audition third they’re looking for somebody who isn’t on their roster already and I don’t mean in name I mean in voice in in acting ability I highly suggest and this goes into how you should submit to an agent I highly suggest if there’s an agent that you like and you want to be a part of the roster go to their website and check out their talent on the roster and listen to each one and try to see if any of them sound like you you know do they have do they have a voice actor whose voice is very similar to yours who’s Cadence or who’s idiosyncrasies and the way they speak are very similar to yours if that’s the case then that’s probably not a good thing for you because the agency the agent doesn’t want to take on multiple similar talents because then they’d be cannibalizing the results they get for one or two other Talent if you find a roster that has somebody similar to you I’m going to go to another agent now now if you’re like hell bent on getting on that that’s like your dream roster hey man I mean it’s worth maybe waiting until it opens up or maybe you just have some way to sell yourself to them whether you offer something that gives you an edge and they’ll take you on the roster but most agents are looking for unique talented voice actors that they can present to the market and they would love to be the first to bring that new voice or that New Perspective to the market like that that’s what they’re looking for and fourth they want to know are you bookable are you actively um servicing voice over accounts do you have clients that you’ve worked for in the past big name clients or even smaller name clients do you have clients that come to you for repeat work do you have the ability to direct Market yourself and find your own work um this is important because if you can’t book then why would an agent want to rep you I mean firstly if you can’t book that means there’s something wrong with your performance or there’s something wrong with um you know where you’re trying to audition through you know maybe you’re just not putting your voice in the right spot um but if you’re not able to book then maybe the agent’s not going to take you the agent wants to get paid at the end of the day they that’s their job man and they get paid when you get paid they eat when you eat and if you ain’t eating they ain’t eating we use them hungry together you know what I’m saying so you got to make sure that you when you step to the age and you say hey this is what I want to do I’m DJ Dykes I want to be part of your roster I have I’ve recorded for Bam Bam Bam these clients here Fortune 500 I have these active accounts I have these multiple uh repeat clients and now I’m just looking to to add you know and I want to share that opportunity with you and hopefully get some bigger bookings you know when I step to my agent my first agent I’m sorry my second agent um I basically told her I was like you know I’m landing local and Regional Regional is like my thing but I just can’t get to the National level and she’s like okay I can help you with that and I was just up up front but the thing is I was already booking work like pretty regularly Regional uh regionally so it wasn’t like I was like hey I’m completely agreeing help me I was like hey I got this but I know you can help me get there let’s do it together does that make sense so it’s a collaboration it’s always a collaboration guys um and as a as an aside but kind of as a 0.5 of what an agent is looking for they’re looking for somebody who it just follows directions I probably should have put this first okay follow the directions every agent has a particular way they want you to record your audition slate your audition which means say your name or the agency’s name is DJ Dykes you know for this agency um how many seconds of Silence do they want no silence if you have two takes how many seconds of Silence between the takes all of these things how they want the audio process what format do you submit on time the following directions dude will trust me they will love you for it and they won’t say thank you because they expect it from you but if you’re the person who doesn’t follow directions and you can constantly send in shitty audio or you’re not following the rules of the the uh you know setting the the label or the naming of the file dude they’re gonna they’re gonna drop you man you can’t follow instructions what are you three years old come on my three my five-year-old follows directions better than a lot of these other voice actors Okay so you can set yourself apart by doing that and that starts with the submission process so if you’re trying to submit to an agent and you’re at their website and they tell you here’s the steps to submit to us follow that to the T okay read it and read it again and read it again if you have to and make sure you understand exactly what they’re looking for you to do because believe it or that’s that’s a that’s a way to weed out talent that they don’t want to work with again professionalism and following directions if you can’t do that through the submission then you know that says a lot about you as a person now with that being said I would definitely definitely definitely tell you not to circumvent those instructions if they have a form to fill out online or they have a certain way they want you to send you know to this General email address do not do not submit your demo or whatever to them directly like try to search for the email and do it directly don’t do that guys because again you’re not following directions you think you’re special by submitting that way and you just rubbing the wrong while you’re burning a bridge before you even get a chance to walk across it you know so um I hope that was clear what agents are looking for now every agent is different that they may have you know individual things that they’re looking for but generally speaking if you follow those rules every agent is going to love you now what do you need to apply to get rep by an agent uh well if you’ve been in this industry for a while then you know without a doubt you need a demo and a professional demo not a DIY do-it-yourself or I had my cousin do it in garage band on the weekend you need a professional demo and professional doesn’t just mean audio engineering professional that’s obviously part of it but professional where you were coached through that demo by somebody who knows and has a good ear and what you should do with that read and do all of the reads sound different don’t you showing your range you need a good commercial demo even if you’re going for animation like that’s the path you want to go animation or video game narration whatever you should be submitting with a commercial demo unless their submission process States otherwise almost every Coastal agent that I’ve ever seen just want your commercial demo even if you are going for animation because the commercial demo shows your range you know they don’t need to hear you doing the cowboy Voice or some witch voice they just need you to do they need to hear you what are you bringing that’s different because at the end of the day they make their money doing they make their money through commercial bookings that’s where you’ll make most of your money is through commercial bookings so you you really need to make sure that you have a good commercial demo if you have if you don’t have the demo but you have spots maybe you’re a person who does a lot of direct marketing or you give work from pay to play sites or things like that and you have spots that you’ve recorded you know with the client permission and get that audio and you can have somebody mix them together in like a makeshift demo it’s not really a DIY because they’re actual spots but it’s something that you can put together without having to pay you know 2500 for a professional demo and to be honest with you that’s how I got my my three regional agents was with a demo compiled of spots that I really like that showed my range um I’ll have my real Pro demo here in the next couple of months or so but I was able to get Regional representation with that you know I don’t say DIY demo with that makeshift demo and um so what else you need you’ll need um to make sure that you have a recording space that is treated if you or a person who has to travel to a studio to record every single time to do a job it’s not very smart it’s 20 23. everybody who wants to be a voice actor needs to have a home studio like it’s not it’s not even like a buffer up for discussion you need a home studio with Source connect okay if you don’t want to pay for Source connect you don’t have to but you need to understand how to turn it on and get it going before you start looking for representation because that’s what they’re going to ask you if we you know if you get booked are you going to be able to have a remote directed session or if you are a person who has to go to a studio can you get there within 30 minutes or within an hour because sometimes they need it that fast so if you don’t have a home studio I don’t really know what you’re doing I mean the equipment is not that expensive anymore it’s really accessible to pretty much everybody so yeah you need to have a home recording space that is Source connect equipped and essentially that’s it um to to apply for representation now if you apply to an agent and it’s been a week and they haven’t you know gotten to you don’t bother them if it’s been like 30 days and you still haven’t heard something um and there’s a way you can contact that agency directly within the rules of their submission process you know then it’s okay to send a follow-up email hey just you know checking out I submitted about a month ago I just wanted to check and see if you guys had a chance to get to me and after that if they don’t get back to you Let It Go all right do not be the one that’s like sending the weekly email but like just copy and pasting what you said the last week and say you know sentence and don’t do it again you don’t want to burn the bridge you know I mean you don’t want to burn the bridge before you even get your foot in the [ __ ] door I said one follow-up email about 30 days after you’ve submitted the original email and let it go okay there’s plenty of agencies to look at and you don’t have to get hell-bent on getting that one agency um on that note if you are newer or you don’t have a pro demo or you are a person who you know if you’re [ __ ] doing what you’re supposed to do to compete all right if you have not reached that point where you feel like you can compete on the national level do not I repeat do not reach out to the coastal agencies the big ones you know I’m talking about LA and New York cesd Atlas Fox sbv DPN Dean Panero um just don’t touch them right trust me though those you get those when you are really just killing it and but you should definitely not apply before you’re ready because again their memories are very long and if you have come across your desk with a DIY demo or with some [ __ ] that just wasn’t worth sending to even to your grandmother they the likelihood of them remembering it was pretty high okay so you just wait until you’re really ready and then submit to them take your time get you a local agent if you’re just starting out seeing how local agent will take a chance on you if you’ve got some work under your belt and you just want to increase you know streams of Revenue or your opportunities to get Revenue then maybe going with a regional agent is the path you can look into there’s nothing wrong with only having Regional agents I have booked tens of thousands of dollars worth of work through just by Regional agents guys okay um it is very very lucrative if you have the skills and the ability to deliver a good performance uh Regional agents can provide volumes of work okay so I don’t know if that needed to be said but I know when I first thought about agent representation I didn’t realize that Regional agents actually provide that much work opportunity and I highly highly recommend watching uh vo Buzz weekly by Chuck Duran it is a wealth of information he has tens of interviews with actual agents at these big agencies these by Coastal agencies that go through all these details and granted many of them are like pre-covered so they’re a bit dated in terms of how the landscape has changed since covet hit but still great information that stands true today okay anyways my name is DJ guys I’ll see you in the next video

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