Explore the shifting landscape of voice acting. Discover current voiceover industry trends, ethical AI developments, and market insights curated by Lance Blair.
Mastering the Art of Pre-Recorded “Live” Improvised PerformancesIt feels incredibly backward when a producer hands you a voice over audition or booking but expects you to fill in your own version of the copy. They pay you to interpret a script, not create it from scratch, right? However, in the world of Simulated Live Reads,…
What is an SLR, or Simulated Live Read? An SLR is a radio advertising format where a pre-recorded commercial by a voice actor or non-host gets production treatment to sound exactly like the station’s local on-air personality is delivering it live in the studio. Alternatively, it can sound like an Influencer speaking extemporaneously in that…
The Four Post-WW2 Generational Voice Over Styles What are the defining characteristics of Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, and Baby Boomer generational voice over styles, especially in commercials and voice acting characters? Here’s a breakdown of how these styles play out in practice: Baby Boomers: The Authority Baby Boomers essentially defined what professional voiceover sounded like for decades. Think…
On October 7, 2025 California governor Gavin Newsom signed California SB 576 for Limiting Streaming Services Commercial Loudness. The CA SB 576 bill text was written by State Senator Thomas Umberg, who noted how commercials on streaming services were on average so much louder than program content. So much so that streaming commercials would wake…
What is LUFS? What is LUFS? And what should LUFS Voiceover Levels be? Well, LUFS (Loudness Units Referenced to Full Scale) is the standard for measuring Loudness. Loudness is the perceived level of heard sound. It is not the same as peak volume level, which is the maximum amplitude of a sound wave. 0 dBFS…
Voices.com Promoting AI Voices Over Human Ones Voices.com participated in a 2019 Voicebot.ai survey that said 71% preferred a human voice-over AI. Yes, AI voices have come a long way since 2019, but even the best ones are still annoying, even in brief samples. Voices.com did their own survey of 336 registered client users of…
Reaching a Global Market with your Voice Over English is a global language, with over 430 million people speaking it as their first language. But it is also the global business language, with estimates that 1 to 1.5 billion people speak English as their second language. To reach this audience, many of my corporate and…