Not all voice-over agencies are the same.
The main two types of voice-over agencies are exclusive and non-exclusive.

Exclusive:
These are agents/agencies representing their bank of talent, unavailable elsewhere, keeping it in the family.

Exclusive agents make their revenue by taking a % of all a voice talent’s earnings. They negotiate on behalf of the voice talent, handle all the finance, and manage the talent’s schedule.

Exclusive agents often represent known talent where the per-project fees are higher, and therefore the agent’s commission is at a level to have a sustainable business. For this reason, many exclusive agencies will only represent a voice actor that already has had some success – it’s more likely to guarantee the bookings.

An exclusive agent can offer talent that may not be available anywhere else.
However, that exclusivity often comes with a price tag to match.

Non-Exclusive:

These are quite the opposite. A non-exclusive agency will typically offer voice artists more projects but at a lower rate than an exclusive agent can. Customers will also get a wider choice of talent, although the same voices can often be available directly or from other agencies at different rates.

• Voice-over agents offer a managed service and the opportunity of working with an experienced project manager, who will handle the project details and save valuable time and effort. This can be especially helpful for multilingual projects or projects with multiple voices.

• Agencies already have long-established relationships with talent. Working with experienced artists with a proven track record should also save you money in the long run, meaning no expensive retakes. If you buy cheap, you buy twice!

• Voice artists of a higher caliber may not be easy to find or even available on a P2P site, although this still depends on what is required. You can opt for an agent that will generally only send you an artist (so you still have to book the studio and other resources) or one that will fully manage the recordings and send you a finished product.

When approaching a voice-over agency, it’s good to have a few things sorted out first:

• the voice-over script
• the purpose of the project
• how they will use the voice-over
• any desired usage rights or exclusivity
• a description of the gender, age, tone, language or accent of voice(s)

The job of a voice-over agent is to wrangle high-quality audition submissions from stellar talent in a streamlined and organised fashion so that folks who hire voice actors can easily select the voice that best fits their needs.

So think about it, we’re sure you won’t be disappointed.