GRATEFUL for AI?!? SURELY YOU MUST BE JOKING!

I've been getting a little discouraged lately about the voiceover business.

We are hearing stories of lots of people potentially being allegedly hornswoggled by a particular coach. People are making up Zoom calls with celebrities that probably didn't happen. There's La Niña and war and unrest on the world stage and I'm feeling it all heavier in a way that I probably haven't since maybe 2016.

So when that happens, one of the best strategies I've found to manage it myself is to go hard in the paint on my gratitude practice.

Consistently practicing gratitude does a world of good for my mental well-being. It boosts my overall mood, it lowers my anxiety and my depression. And it's not just about feeling good. It improves my relationships, my sleep. It's good for the immune system. Lots of good stuff there.

So, as we head into Thanksgiving week here in the States, I thought it would be a great time to remind myself and count down the top five things I'm grateful for in the voiceover business.

AI/TTS, conferences/conventions, professional development, rates, sag-aftra, the vo industryPaul SchmidtNovember 16, 2023SAG-AFTRA, GVAA, NAVA, AIComment

A Voice Over MASS EXODUS? Will 80% of Voice Actors Be OUT?

Music Radio Creative’s Izabela Russell recently said on their channel that she sees a mass exodus happening in the voice over industry. And while Izabela’s take is stark, and blunt, it’s not new.

Do I agree with her? Yes. And no. I’ll get to that.

I agree, and I’ve said this for years, that AI will obliterate the bottom end of the industry where price is and always has been the primary driver. And I think that’s a good thing because for those of us who have taken the time and effort to get the training, build our businesses, and command pro rates, AI will take clients who don’t care about quality in the first place off the table. It will give them a better solution to their problem, and it will eliminate or at least minimize the garbage work out there for human voice actors.

And for those who haven’t taken that time and effort, I do think there is a reckoning coming.

So, what do we do? As voice actors? Push is in fact coming to shove, so what do we do when the robots can do what most voice actors can do?

AI/TTS, professional development, the vo industryPaul SchmidtOctober 26, 2023AI, ai voices, Izabela RussellComment

Is Voice Over Work DRYING UP?!? THE 6 BIG CAUSES

As I touched on in my last video, 2023 has been a slow year for voiceover. In fact, this might be the first year in the 21st century that we can honestly say that voiceover work has not… available work… has not grown year over year.

There's no hard data that I know of in the voiceover industry that shows the exact amount of available work. But I talked to a lot of people in this business and pretty much everybody agrees it's been a down year.

This has also been the year that A.I. has exploded onto the scene.

Terms like generative AI were barely on our radar a year ago and they're now part of our everyday lexicon. A year ago, A.I. Voices was a term and a concept we all knew and were aware of and knew was coming. But nobody had any idea what that was going to mean for 2023.

Now, that said, if we agree that voiceover is in a bear market then that begs the question: why?

There are six main reasons VO is slow right now and I'm going to break them down for you today.

acting, AI/TTS, business, sag-aftra, the vo industryPaul SchmidtSeptember 28, 2023AI, ai voices, strike, economy, training, covid-19Comment

Is PANIC Setting In at Voices.com? 2 Signs

I talk to a lot of people in the voiceover business. Voice actors, casting directors, producers, agents, you name it. And while not everybody's business is flat or down at any given time, think most people acknowledge that right now, the voiceover industry is going through a slow period.

Now, as I film this, we're in the back half of September of 2023, and I think most people will acknowledge that this summer particularly was slower than most summers, and it's been that way for several months.

Now, one of the facets of the business that I think is seeing maybe the most change right now are the online platforms.

And today, we're going to take a look at two specific pieces of communication that I think give a really good snapshot in time of just how desperate Voices appears.

casting sites, rates, the vo industry, AI/TTSPaul SchmidtSeptember 21, 2023voices, Voices.com, AI, ai voices Comments

SAG-AFTRA & WGA Strikes: Fighting for HUMANITY in Art

Here, today, right now, those developing generative AI are threatening to put a lot of us out of work. In October of 2020, the World Economic Forum said that while AI would likely take away 85 million jobs globally by 2025 (and we’re more than halfway there, by the way), it would also generate 97 million new jobs in fields ranging from big data and machine learning to information security and digital marketing.

But here’s the thing: The jobs it’s taking away aren’t the same jobs it’s creating. It’s not creating jobs for creatives. It’s taking them away. Good luck quitting your job as an actor and waltzing into a machine learning job.

And for a prime example of just how this is happening, look no further than our own industry and the current SAG-AFTRA and Writer’s Guild of America strikes against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which includes the major streaming services and Hollywood studios.

AI/TTS, creativity, sag-aftra, the vo industryPaul SchmidtAugust 17, 2023SAG-AFTRA, WGA, strike, AI, ai voicesComment

Voices.com Finally CAVES. NAVA Announces fAIr Voices

Tim Friedlander, president of NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, discusses the recent victory in which Voices dot com amended their terms of service to address the use of voice actors in AI voices. Tim credits community efforts and demonstrates the power of collective action.

casting sites, the vo industry, AI/TTS, businessPaul SchmidtMay 18, 2023NAVA, voices, Voices.com, AI, bodalgo, castvoices, vo planet, aiComment

Surviving in VO – Growing Relationships & Income Streams

Alright, let's take voice over out of it for a minute, okay? One in four jobs in the next five years. This is not just voice over. This is globally. One in four jobs is set to change because of factors like artificial intelligence, global supply chain issues, green energy and digitization.

One in four. That's not just voice over. That's the world over.

But it's clear in the next 5 to 10 years, maybe longer, that the ways that we go about finding work and generating personal income will change rapidly. But stick around because while there's a lot of not-so-great news, there's also a lot of great news for voice actors and freelancers who can learn to navigate this brave new world.

Voice123's Rolf REACTS: Voices.ai & the FUTURE of VO

I sat down with Voice123's Rolf Veldman soon after the launch of Voices' new AI product. Rolf gives us his reaction and his take on how AI, voice cloning, digital doubling, synthetic voices, text to speech (TTS), and technology in general will impact the voiceover industry. He references a chat with David Ciccerelli, talks about what a fair and ethical terms of use should include, and the ethos of Voice123.com and how it aligns with ethical treatment of all parties, including the voice actor.

the vo industry, casting sitesPaul SchmidtMay 8, 2023Voice123, voices, Voices.com, AI, ai voicesComment

Will ChatGPT KILL Voice Acting?!?!?

ChatGPT. A.I.. Text to speech. Speech to speech. Are the digital boogeymen finally here to decimate voice acting and beat us up and take our lunch money?

Today we're going to talk about ChatGPT specifically and A.I. in general to kind of make sense out of all the fear and hype in the voice acting community.

With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, a lot of us are asking ourselves, Well, hell, how do we even stay relevant in a world that is changing at lightspeed?

acting, creativity, mindset, the vo industry, AI/TTSPaul SchmidtApril 20, 2023ChatGPT, AI, TTS Comments

The VO Pro Blog