Get your own voiceover roster
(maybe instantly)
Have you been half-arsing an in-house voiceover directory? Just saving voice artists to your email contacts? Maybe just to your CRM? There are pretty good reasons you should get your own voiceover roster – a dedicated database of voice talent. Even if you usually find voiceover artists on VO marketplaces. Setting up an in-house talent roster will save you a ton of time and effort when you’re casting your next project or pitching to a client.
Who needs their own voicever roster?
- Freelance producers, casting directors, film directors and other freelance video & audio creatives – so you can easily access voice artists on any campaign
- Video production companies, film-makers, content producers, AR/VR companies, ad agencies & creative agencies, e-learning companies & videogame developers – any company working in the audio & video space
- Voiceover artists. Because of point 1 below.
A couple of things prompted me to design a voiceover roster. The second thing convinced me I should design it so anyone can have their very own free talent database.
- Sometimes I get asked by a client to recommend a voice actor for a particular job. I know LOTS of brilliant voice talent. But can I remember them all instantly? Nope. Do I know the full range of voice experience they each have? Obviously not.
- Because a video production company client I recorded a voiceover for a couple of years back had lost my details. And forgotten my surname. Outrageous, right? Surely… I’m unforgettable?! Thankfully (for them and for me), they found me online by trawling the search results for ‘male English voiceover artist’.
But if you’ve got your own voiceover roster, a purpose-built space where you add any voice actor who might be useful, every casting gets easier. Quicker. More efficient. More accurate.
Why a voiceover roster is better than your CRM or email software
Simple, really.
Neither CRM nor email is flexible enough to give you granular search. Fine if you already have a particular person in mind and can remember their name. Fine if you don’t need anything more specific than ‘male voiceover artist’.
But even if you use a CRM’s tagging facility, it’s going to be a looooooooooooong query string to find a male voiceover artist with convincing Bristol, Polish and French accents and more than one vocal age to play several characters in gamified e-learning.
A multi-filtered voiceover database has the power to help you be as detailed as you might ever want to be.
Welcome to your free voiceover roster
It’s the giveaway mentioned in my article Where can I find the best voiceover artists?
A completely free template that shows you how to make your own voiceover roster.
If you’re already using the versatile team productivity tool Notion*, you can install my template in seconds.
It’s even prepopulated with some talented UK voice actors, to get you started. (All of whom gave their permission to be included, of course!)
When you follow the link, just hit ‘Duplicate’ to add the template to your workspace.
Not a Notion user?
- No problem. You’ll find that the free version is hugely powerful. I built the template in it. And every bit of functionality works even if you’ve only got the free account.
- Build the talent roster in something else. If your company is already using a similar project management, workspace or productivity app (eg Asana, Basecamp, ClickUp, Monday.com, Trello, even OneNote or Evernote), chances are you can make a voice talent roster that’s pretty similar.
Either way, this template gives you a handy head-start. Most of the search filters and functions you could ever want are included here. Anything extra can be easily added or adapted from the voiceover template.
Brainwork done. Although you might want to add even more info to your voiceover database – and I’ve put some more ideas further down this page.
*I chose Notion to build the voiceover roster because the range of functionality in the free version outstripped every rival app I tried. Only after I’d built it did I think ‘maybe I could make a quid or two in commission’. Hence the affiliate link. Worth noting – you can use the template unrestricted AND add a bunch more functionality, without paying a penny. For teams, though, it might be worth looking at the Plus pricing.
Watch how the voice talent roster works
Preset filters and functions in the talent template
- Stores demo reels
- Stores headshot(s)
- Stores any and all contact details
- Filters by gender, location or home studio access
- Filters by accents and character accents
- Filters by vocal qualities, pitch and playing ages
- Filters by project types
- Tracks clients and campaigns a VO is used for
- Stores other information and related documents
Further ideas to include in your voice talent roster
- Approval status
- Specific character archetypes
- On-camera acting experience
- On-camera presenting experience
- Singing experience
- Source of original contact
- Record negotiated usage rates or discounted deals
- Store videos
- Store signed contracts and NDAs
- Link to a calendar for bookings and reminders
The point is, you can tailor your voiceover roster to record and filter by almost anything you can think of. You can even hook it up to other software in your organisation.
And the sooner you start, the faster all your future voiceover castings will be!
