Who chooses a voice over artist?

The creative director and/or creative team does. This could be the producer, the copywriter, the client…anyone who is in charge of the production.

The creative team maintains a library of voice over demos. When they need to hire a voice over artist, they search their library to find the appropriate voice. It‘s advantageous for them to have a large library, as this allows them to be more specific when choosing a voice over artist.

Often, the creative team will give a third party the responsibility of choosing the voice over artist. The third party could be a casting director, talent agency, recording studio, or anyone else who maintains a voice over library.

In this case, the creative team will furnish the third party a list of required voice characteristics. The third party will then search through their library of demos, find a few voices that closely fit the description, and give those demos to the creative team to make the final choice.

Once a good rapport is established between the creative team and third party, the creative team may allow the third party to choose the final voice.

It is estimated that creative teams will play a voice over artist‘s demo 20 times for each time that it is chosen. The voice over artist is unaware when their demo is being played.