Over the last few years, the medium of audio-based storytelling has been surging in popularity. Audiobooks and podcasts have especially taken flight in this busy age, allowing people in all walks of life to multitask while listening to their favorite stories and media personalities. In the midst of it all, another type of listening experience has resurfaced. A genre that, while being rooted in the 1920’s, has found a unique place in the market of storytelling: audio dramas.

WHAT IS AN AUDIO DRAMA?

Audio dramas (formerly known as radio plays) are defined by Backstage as “a fictional story told purely through audio. The performance typically combines dialogue, sound effects, and music to create an immersive world that listeners can follow as they would a TV show or movie. Clarity is paramount in radio theater, so it also often includes narration to situate the audience.” Back in their infancy, these productions would be performed live, but in the 21st century, and with the advent of digital audio workstations (DAW), anybody with a home studio, knowledge of how to use the right software, and have access to audio repositories for sound effects and music can create an audio drama. Which could be very appealing to audio-based creatives like voice actors, composers and audio engineers who want to create their own content using what they already have.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Audio dramas now take the form of what could be referred to as “narrative podcasts,” as the term “podcast” has become so ubiquitous in audio-based entertainment, and thereby solidified it’s place in the current zeitgeist. It’s also become a very accessible medium for folks to record themselves and publish their own content on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and a whole host of other publishing services. With the low barrier to entry, podcasts (and now audio dramas as they grow in popularity) have become a great way for independent creators, voice actors and others to showcase their creative skills, tell stories, and even market their businesses. This could lead to vast differences in quality, but for people like voice actors, audio shouldn’t be a problem.

This has led to people in the VO industry to start to create their own content and showcase their acting abilities. Not only is this creatively fulfilling but doing this can be an effective marketing tool for performers. So much so, that the VO community has embraced the medium in some really fun and interesting ways, even playing with different genres of storytelling and adapting them to the audio format. Examples include Big Finish Productions creating adaptations of the time-travelling adventures of Doctor Who, with some of the original actors reprising their roles from the TV show, such as Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor) and Christopher Eccelston (The Ninth Doctor). ShoestringTV on YouTube produces the horror audio drama, Leo Brawn, and a spin-off called Topaz & Stillman. Iridescent Acorn Productions is another independent organization creating a number of audio dramas like Set Sail!, The Daring Adventures of Sierra Stone, Love Exceeds Death, and more!

I had the opportunity to sit in on an audio drama, or perhaps audio cinema, workshop at OneVoice USA that was presented by Sam Philyaw and Rob Harrower of Iridescent Acorn Productions and found it really enlightening as to how different teams approach different productions. Some time after the conference, I hopped on a Zoom call with them and got their insights on how audio cinema (we’re making it a thing) can be a really great way to tell compelling stories with deep and rich themes, beyond that which might be colloquially associated with the term audio drama. Through this conversation, I discovered just how accessible this medium could be, especially to voice actors and other creative collaborators (artists, musicians, audio engineers, etc.). Overhead is typically very low, the necessary tools are relatively easy to acquire and the production time for these projects can be very quick, depending on the workflow of the team producing the content. Sam and Rob are both writers, producers and voice actors in their own right, and have fully embraced this genre of storytelling. They have produced and been a part of audio cinema projects from horror and drama to adventure and comedy. Based on our conversation, it’s a very flexible medium and can be a very liberating mode of telling stories, fully produced in-house by small teams of passionate creatives. This is where the conversation gets a little more in depth with how the genre is approached.

These productions are often passion projects by independent creators. Some prefer it that way, but it also seems to be a deeper and more nuanced conversation as this genre becomes more popular and profitable. Voice actor Allison Cossitt, creator of the award-winning audio drama Partial Veil, had this to say:

“The majority of it right now, is independent. So going forward.. I think we’re going to see a lot of independent audio drama. I think the tricky thing is that when people do start figuring it out, and listening to it, that’s when the corporations are going to come in and start making ‘professionally made audio drama.’ Now on the one hand, that’s kind of awesome because it will help spread the word for independent producers, but on the other hand, it is going to kind of overshadow the independent producers. And it won’t be quite as easy to [be] like, ‘I’m gonna make an audio drama” and have it do well. […] I do think that more professionally produced audio drama is on the horizon and that will help alert people to the fact that it exists, and hopefully, because I love making audio dramas and I love presenting them but ain’t no way I’m ever signing with a label, baby!”

I also had the chance to speak with Terry Briscoe, an award-winning voice & on-camera actor based out of Maryland who has been lending his voice to characters in ShoestringTV projects, such as Willie Topaz in the Leo Brawn audio drama, as well as the starring role in the comedy spin-off from Leo Brawn, Topaz & Stillman. He’s very optimistic about the future of audio dramas and how they may be monetized to the benefit of all involved. Right now, creators such as ShoestringTV are looking to monetize these projects, but as it stands, there are only a handful of ways to do that. Crowd-funding via Patreon and Kickstarter are popular ways for fans and enthusiasts alike to help out the shows that they love, and if the creators are able to meet certain thresholds of viewership, YouTube ad revenue could also be a possibility. Spotify is also an accessible avenue for distributing audio dramas. However, with social media platforms changing their algorithms frequently, it can be difficult to promote these productions, especially for those just starting out. Regardless, Terry mentioned that he’ll continue to act for audio dramas as they are an awesome way to not only boost an actor’s IMDB page, but more importantly, fulfill the creative spirit that all voice actors and their collaborators share.

Overall, creators in this space seem to have a whole lot of fun and are very optimistic about the viability of this genre as a legitimate place to grow in voiceover. However, creating this content, in some ways, is the “easy part.” Making it sustainable and seeing where they go from here is another point of discussion entirely.

WHERE DO THEY GO FROM HERE?

Creating compelling stories and publishing them under the correct circumstances is one thing. Making the audio drama medium financially sustainable is a wholly different conversation. There are a ton of things on the business side of the creative entrepreneur coin that need to be taken into account, such as marketing the shows, intellectual property (IP) considerations, monetization and other investments and revenue streams.

I spoke with Antonio Bustos, creator of the Terra Alpha Audio Drama, and our discussion led to different methods of developing both content and revenue for these kinds of projects. Based on our discussion, the core of the content can take on many forms, including creating new IPs or or obtaining the rights to adapt from existing IPs, such as from tabletop roleplaying games (adapted in projects like Terra Alpha) or TV shows, like how Big Finish Productions obtained a license to adapt Dr. Who stories to audio. Antonio mentioned that there’s a lot of room for growth in audio dramas in both production and monetization, but it’s going to take some smart partnerships to help them get produced to the point where everyone can fairly benefit. They may even be utilized as a sort of proof of concept for films and animated series or as supplementary content for other mainstream franchises. There’s a lot of creative ways they can be implemented to enhance projects and boost the presence of organizations across the business.

The enthusiasm for audio dramas is currently really high across the VO community. It’s a great way to create original or adapted content, showcase acting skills and explore other parts of the production process. The OneVoice Awards even have a category for audio drama performance. They’re only trending up and with the momentum audio dramas are gaining, they’ll break the mold sooner or later and when they do, they’ll make a really unique mark in the industry.