The voiceover business has radically changed today. This is because of the internet, digital computer-based recording studios in homes and garages and offices, weakened performers' unions in our current climate of non-union preferences (or so it often seems), the quest for lower cost voiceover talents, and the easy-access many have to training in the voiceover skills area. All of these factors have combined to make voiceover work, today, far different than it was three (or even two or one) decades ago when I entered the marketplace.

Today, voiceover talents must have representation from broadcasting agents in many locations, not only in the U.S., but hopefully, in foreign countries too. The voiceover talent must have a digital computer-based recording studio and know how to operate it (being a capable audio engineer is a big plus!). The voiceover performer must self-promote constantly, realizing that agents are not the be-all-and-end-all of our business anymore, but rather, are helpers who assist talents. Basically, the voiceover performer must find his or her own jobs, his or her own loyal accounts. Networking is paramount in obtaining new connections and cementing former ones. Doing regular mailers and publishing ads in selected target publications is a must. A voiceover talent is an entrepreneur.

A voiceover talent is a business owner and that business is the talent's voice!

Newcomers: Keep the faith. Old-timers, get in step with today!

Bettye Zoller is the voice of many hundreds of national TV commercials, narrator of major videos and films heard worldwide. She owns and operates a digital recording studio in her homebase, Dallas, Texas. She is an audio commercial and audio book producer. She is a Simon and Schuster audio author. She is well known as the coach who has helped so many enter broadcasting over the years. She is an authority in the voiceover demo and clients travel far to avail themselves of her expertise as a demo producer and career consultant in-person or by telephone.