Most of the novices who poured into the dubbing industry became escorts.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “wired Insight” (ID: lxinsight), Author: Wang Feng Gu, Editor: pineapple.
Young people’s income anxiety makes sideline jobs a rigid demand.
If you rank the popularity of your sideline business, you will be on the dubbing list.
The dubbing advertisements flooding the Internet outline an attractive industry that combines “low threshold”, “high income” and “high status”. A large number of no-basic novices and novices from non-disciplinary backgrounds are accelerating into this track, eager to make money through sound.
They have different identities, including students, mothers, police, and civil servants. These people not only have enough free time, but also boast of good sound conditions.
Si Ting, a dubbing training teacher who has been coaching for many years, has witnessed the growth of this group of amateur dubbing players. She said: “The talents of dubbing vary from person to person. Some people choose to leave early, while others persist until the end. The dubbing field stays, and it tests strength and perseverance.”
For many companies, dubbing is just needed. The dubbing ability is like a universal currency, circulating in short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, audio platforms such as Himalaya and Dragonfly fm, major advertising companies, as well as the “heart-to-heart sparring” that does sound social networking and the “not-you-can” under Inke APP” and other platforms.
Full-time voice actors are active on the front line, not only undertaking dubbing tasks for brand advertising companies, film and television companies, etc., but also setting up their own studios, recruiting voice actors, and taking orders.
Various dubbing intermediary platforms and training schools have also become popular. While providing dubbing courses, they also accept orders for advertising, audiobooks, and voice anchors.
However, most people are still escorts.
The dubbing officer Gongming told Wired Insight: “The dubbing industry is not as glamorous as people think.” Under the exquisite packaging of many educational institutions, many people ignore the cruel bottom story of this industry.
Even full-time voice actors have ups and downs in their professional experience, and most of the novices who are seduced by advertisements, in addition to consuming time, energy and money, may also fall into the scam of training loans.
In the popular dubbing sideline business, who finally makes money, and who is just a foil?
Dubbing demand explodes
A few years ago, dubbing was still a very small circle.
In 2016, the “Beijing News” reported that the domestic dubbing circle has a high entry standard, and very few people earn a living from dubbing. There are only more than 300 people who can be active in the Beijing dubbing circle full-time, and there are only more than 200 people in Shanghai.
In 2018, we are entering the world of “for”On the world’s programs, well-known voice actor Xia Lei mentioned that the number of voice actors in the country adds up to only a few hundred, and most of them are “retail investors”, and most of them are still unemployed or semi-unemployed.
The plight of the dubbing circle is not unrelated to the development of this industry.
In this industry, the income ceiling is obvious, and the growth rate is slow. Take domestic TV dramas as an example. In 2000, the dubbing pay for the male and female lead of a drama was around 200 yuan/episode. At present, nearly 20 years have passed, and the remuneration for dubbing is only between 300-500 yuan/episode.
But the explosion of video platforms, two-dimensional communities, and audio platforms has brought new opportunities to the dubbing industry.
The “2020 China Online Audio Industry Research Report” released by iiMedia Consulting shows that the market size of China’s online audio industry in 2019 has reached 17.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.1%, and in the next 2020-2022 , The domestic network audio market will continue to maintain a growth rate of more than 30%.
Network audio market size,
Picture source “2020 China Online Audio Industry Research Report”
First, short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have attracted voice actors.
Dana, who was born as a broadcast host, did not continue to work in this major after graduating from her master’s degree. But now, she has started to make short videos. With her gentle and soft voice, she has gained a lot of audiences.
A proprietor of live broadcasts said that live broadcasts are not just live broadcasts. If the program is recorded in advance and pre-loaded, there is a lot of demand for dubbing.
In the field of domestic animation dubbing, through short videos, voice actors who were previously unknown began to become idols.
For example, Zhou Ziyu, the voice actor of “Bear Infested”, has his own fan support group. In addition to young children, Zhou Ziyu has also harvested a group of little fans. He is affectionately called “Yu Brother” by fans.
In addition, platforms that use sound as their selling point, such as Himalaya, Qingting FM, and Inke, are also experiencing new demand.
thisThese platforms release new dubbing tasks every week, and announce brand support plans once a month. Take the Himalayas as an example. From the beginning of the year to the present, it has announced three phases of the “Amoy Sound Plan” to give voice anchors cash and flow subsidies.
The dubbing has gradually gone out of the circle, and the demand for platforms has increased, so that more people are attracted by this industry.
In order to earn some extra money, Zhu Jie, who was 18 years old, learned to dub. She mentioned: “Because people often praise the sound, I started to try dubbing. It would be nice if I can use one more skill to make money.”
“The formerly small dubbing circle has gradually grown. Now the dubbing circle has broken beyond the restrictions of shantytowns and is no longer limited to radio stations and film and television dramas.” Voice actor Okawa said to Connected Insight.
The demand for dubbing has exploded, and many dubbing groups have flourished. These WeChat groups and QQ groups are mostly managed by dubbing platforms of varying sizes, operated through the community, and finally channeled to the dubbing platform.
How to make money by dubbing?
The direction of dubbing is mainly divided into two categories: performance and narration. Performance dubbing can be divided into film and television drama series, games, audiobook dubbing, and narrative dubbing can be divided into advertisements, promotional films, documentary dubbing, etc.
“The classification of dubbing is complex, but there is no obvious difference in income in all directions, which mainly depends on the professional level of the dubbing.” said the dubbing Gongming.
Taking orders is the main way of survival for dubbing players and dubbing platforms. Mature dubbing players can take orders on their own. Part-time dubbing players and newcomers to the industry need to rely on dubbing platforms to take orders. These platforms connect voice actors and Party A companies (companies with voice-over needs), and also sell voice-over courses to the public.
Generally speaking, completing a complete dubbing order is divided into three steps. First, Party A’s company puts forward a dubbing demand, and the dubbing platform takes the order; second, the dubbing platform issues orders, and the dubbing staff chooses according to their own conditions; finally, the dubbing platform pays the dubbing staff corresponding remuneration.
In the first link, after connecting to Insight and consulting a dubbing platform as the company of Party A, I found that taking the popular two-dimensional elder sister, loli, and male voice as examples, the platform dubbing price can be charged by the minute, You can charge by the number of words, or you can charge by the article.
For example, the number of voice words per minute is limited to 220 words per minute. The price of male and female matches is 30 yuan per minute. However, the staff of the dubbing platform also told Connected Insight, “You can follow the company Negotiate the price with the dubbing staff.”
In the link between the platform and the dubbing staff, freelance dubbing staff Okawa mentioned, “The dubbing platform will set a salary settlement standard with the dubbing staff. For example, the dubbing of a script may be paid according to a fixed number of words and duration, or it may be Script or dubbing courseThe sales volume is divided into commissions, and the proportion of commissions is generally 20% or 25%. “
For example, in the audiobook “A Fairy Tales of Wilde” on the Himalayas, the platform pays 90 yuan/hour to the dubbing staff, which is converted to 1.5 yuan/minute, plus a 15% share.
Part of the order-taking tasks in the order-taking area of the Himalaya Sea Selection
An interesting phenomenon is that there is a significant income gap from the 30 yuan/minute quotation given by Party A to the platform to the 1.5 yuan/minute provided by the platform to the voice actors. This may indicate that the platform has great bargaining power for voice actors.
Si Ting, who is a broadcast host, said: “The income of dubbing workers is very uncertain. On the one hand, the demand for dubbing in the dubbing market fluctuates greatly, which makes it difficult for most people to have stable orders. On the other hand, customers can The price you get depends on your personal ability and your bargaining skills.”
Siting also revealed that among the students she trained, some had a meager income after completing the course for a few months, while others received frequent orders for two to three months and earned more than 10,000 a month.
Comparing different dubbing platforms, Dachuan revealed, “The best quality platforms are those established by professional dubbing players. They have their own studios, with stable orders, guaranteed income, and even a share. But this The threshold for dubbing studios is high, and it is difficult for Xiaobai to enter conditions.”
For most novices, since it is difficult to figure out their market pricing, they can only be forced to trust the platform and become the target of being “squeezed” by the platform.
There are too many monks and less porridge, and it’s hard to do side jobs
The dubbing sideline business is far less glamorous than people think.
Gongming, a voice actor from a professional class, revealed to Online Insight that more and more novices lack a basic understanding of their own conditions and the real income level of the industry, so they rush in in a hurry.
“If you want to step into the dubbing circle, a set of 1000-3000 yuan dubbing equipment is a must. This is just a standard for Xiaobai. For those who want to advance, it often costs tens of thousands.” Si Ting said.
She also revealed that “the oversupply in the industry has made the competition for orders extremely fierce, and because of the low unit price of orders received by Xiaobai who have just entered the industry, income is difficult to guarantee.”
NaxiTake the dubbing order on Malaya as an example. For a task that takes less than 100 yuan an hour, there are as many as hundreds of competitors. In the vast crowds, and when the abilities of many dubbing practitioners are not much different, whether they can receive orders or even fight for luck.
The freelance voice actor Okawa also believes that the dubbing circle has shown a situation where there are too many people. His own professional experience has also been twists and turns. Since graduation, Dachuan has applied for jobs in Internet radio and Beijing Radio, and later in new media as a course research and development and anchor operation. Now, Dachuan has resigned and became a voice anchor.
He said with emotion, “It’s commonplace not to receive orders and being rejected by the company. When the most difficult, you even want to give up. Many people think that voice actors can control most of the roles, but because of talent, personality and many acquired factors , Most people will eventually find that the roles they can adapt to are limited.”
The style that Da Chuan has now explored is more biased towards emotional sound broadcasting. He said that he used to try to break through and adapt to the new style, but the problem that followed is that you may not be able to receive orders, and then you may not be able to eat. .
But on the Internet, countless advertisements have packaged the profession of dubbing too ideally.
On Zhihu, there are many “inspirational” cases that earn hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars each year by dubbing; on Douyin, girls with sweet voices will tell you “dubbing must be hot, just lie flat. Easily earn money”; browsing information advertisements is also full of the slogan “dubbing makes you 200,000 yuan a year”.
But the real situation is not the case. According to the public announcement of the management of digital voice actors: “There are very few people with a monthly income of more than 10,000, and most of them are more mature voice actors, while ordinary practitioners earn more than 6000. -8000 yuan.”
Those who are more miserable than ordinary practitioners are those who have been harvested by traffic.
Because dubbing resources are mostly in the hands of the dubbing platform, many newcomers have no access to Party A’s company and can only seek help from an intermediary. In this way, the low split is one aspect, and there are many things that are defrauded by intermediaries to obtain recording resources.
Take the “heard” platform as an example. From recruiting voice actors, filling in personal information, uploading personal voice samples, and then receiving orders, all the processes are done in one go. But in the end someone discovered that the platform could not withdraw cash, and the dubbing staff who settled in had contributed the dubbing results in vain.
The root cause is that the dubbing copyright issue has not been resolved. Except for large audio communities such as Himalaya and Dragonfly FM, most platforms lack a dubbing copyright protection mechanism, and it is difficult to protect the rights of dubbing practitioners.
In addition, a large number of AI voice companies are also rushing to work as voice actors. Advanced voice technology can already be used for news broadcasts, story explanations, etc., through the learning of the original voice of the voice actors, and the post-editing synthesis.
A one-stop smart dubbing platform
Speaking of the development of the dubbing circle, Gongming blamed the supply chaos in this industry on a group of educational institutions that “wrongly made children”. They called the education package at the prices of “0 yuan” and “9.9 yuan”. Yes, but ignoring the real industry income, leading to an impulse influx of many people.
Gongming, Dachuan, Si Ting, and many other voice actors and related practitioners said: It is fine to try, but it takes enough love to enter the industry.
Love is the reason that supports a professional dubbing player like Dachuan to the end. “Maybe our income is not up to expectations and eating becomes a problem, but we will stick to it. This is due to the love of dubbing since childhood.” Dachuan said.
Film and television dubbing has given the industry a halo like an idol, but the real situation of the industry is not known to the public. On the way people are looking for a sideline to make money, dubbing is more like a besieged city, some people are eager to enter, and some people withdraw sadly.
(At the request of the interviewee, Zhu Jie, Dachuan, and Gongming are pseudonyms.)