Intervou
An Intervou with Brandon Michael Barnett
In Conversation
Brandon's interview, in full
A lightly edited transcript of Brandon Michael Barnett's Intervou video interview.
What key trends do you see reshaping your industry right now?
The key trend that's absolutely reshaping my industry is AI. I think voice-over work is probably the first to go the way of the dinosaur. I'm seeing fewer and fewer jobs out there. The technology has gotten so good that people really don't care, and it's cheaper and faster to use AI than to hire someone like me to do the work.
Really in all the creative endeavors, I see AI imposing. You can write songs without knowing a lick of music with AI now, and even course creation. I just hope that the human factor will not fail to be a factor in the end, and people will want real-life human beings with hearts and souls producing content for consumption.
Where do you think your sector will be in 5 years' time?
That's the million-dollar question. Where will my sector be in 5 years? I wish I had a crystal ball. I wish I knew. Some say that it's the end of this type of work as we know it. Hopefully, it will be some sort of hybrid. And I think the pendulum will swing to where people will still want that human connection.
I think the more digital we become, the more we crave human interaction, and I think we're just going to have to really use AI to our advantage and help us do the things that we do organically, and keep an eye out and diversify and be willing to pivot to keep up with it. Because again, I hope that the human factor remains a factor. I think we want that connection and I think that that's just the human condition. So hopefully we can find a way to blend AI with what human creatives are doing currently.
What external forces - for example, regulation, consumer behavior, or global markets - most affect your industry?
The number one external factor that affects my industry is consumer behavior. Whether it be long-form content or short-form content, the audience would rather have short-form now. I'm a long-form content creator.
Whether music comes from AI or a real person seems to matter less than it used to. Voice-over work doesn't matter if it's a human or not. The consumer wants what it wants. They just want the end product. So yes, definitely consumer behavior affects my industry the most.
What do you believe is the most misunderstood aspect of your industry by the public?
I think the most misunderstood aspect of my industry by the public is the difference between marketing something and creating something. You can create something of value, of high quality. It doesn't mean it's going to go viral, and I get asked to try to make things go viral when my job is just to do a well-done product.
Another thing is people think that you can perform magic if they want you to edit something or clean up something that they've recorded. They want magic. They want it to sound professional even though it wasn't recorded in a professional way. So those two things there, but mainly the difference between virality and a great product. That's something that the general public confuses.
How do you stay ahead of emerging challenges and opportunities in your field?
Staying ahead of emerging challenges and opportunities in my field, you're constantly running if you're doing that. With AI you're trying to keep an eye on it and you're trying to use it when you can to help you do what you do. But I don't know, at least myself, I don't try to stay ahead of it. And I try not to chase it. I try to stay true to what I do.
Keep my eyes and ears open for the new technology and how it can help, or how maybe I can pivot, or how these new technologies might have certain handicaps, and if I can fill that gap I look for that. But I think trying to stay ahead of AI is a losing battle. You just try to do the best you can and ride it out. And again, pivot and try to find opportunities that might exist in that gap.
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