Voice over rates according to its usage rights worldwide.

Voice over rates

The use of voices is prevalent across all mediums of entertainment and communication. No matter if it is movies, documentaries, TV commercials, e-books, or jingles. Voiceover artists are making their voices heard. There is a lot of work for new talents, and the pay is not too bad.

With the new emerging trends of voiceover, the payment system and the royalty fee are not too standardized, especially in India. In many Western nations, some organizations take care of royalty fees for artists, musicians, as well as voiceover artists.

Most often, directors get stuck in a dilemma as they don’t know the standard rates that voiceover artists may expect. No doubt, a lot depends on the quality of the voice and how well it matches the product and the character. All in all, new voice talent can earn as low as Rs 3500 per hour, and an experienced person can earn as much as Rs. 7500 per hour. Sometimes with the ultimate talent on the other end,  it may cost as much as Rs. 45,000 for an entire feature. Voiceovers for e-books and presentations may cost Rs 12000-15000 per hour of finished content.

The learning scales for voice-over artists in India vary, and industry experts are unanimous in saying that creating voiceovers is no doubt challenging work. You can be called into the studio anytime, and the client is paramount. Almost a decade ago, many people used to do voiceover as a part-time job. But, now people are taking up the task as their full-time work. Let’s discuss the voice talent’s fee and how the types of voiceover projects are categorized.

Different types of recording and payments as per industry definition

Buy-out

A buyer refers to a flat rate that is paid for the use of a voice recording. The flat rate can be agreed upon by the client and the artist depending on when and how they record and how often they need the recordings.

Per hour Vs. Per finished hour of finished voice-over

The per-hour rate is the rate that artists charge for the number of hours they spend at the studio to record audio. On the other hand, per finished hour means the total time spent cleaning up the entire recording. Thus, at the end of each finished hour, clients receive edited and sweetened audio by voiceover artists. The recording that is not processed is called the raw audio. E-learning and Audiobook recordings are generally categorized as per hour of finished audio.

Voice-over Per project rate in India

This is a simple one-off payment offered to the artist after completing the project or the recording. The fee paid to the artist remains unchanged no matter how long, or short the project is. It’s more of a negotiation between a buyer and a voice talent.

Spot in India

The spot is a commercial on platforms like TV, radio, or online mode. The commercial spots are usually 10s, 15s, 30s, and  60 seconds long and the prices for Talent’s fee are INR12,000, INR17,000, INR 20,000, and INR25000 respectively.

Broadcast and commercial rights for voiceover projects

Like singers, voiceover artists are also entitled to get paid if they make money out of their recordings and voice. For example, if you are creating an online course, you might be aware that you won’t add music to it without paying royalties to artists. The same applies to voiceover artists too.

Voiceover artists are the talent as well as the producer of the recordings they create. Thus, they have the right of ownership over the content they have created. If you don’t pay royalties and make money out of the recordings given by the voiceover artist, you will run the risk of getting sued.

Most voiceover projects are created to make money. When people hire a voiceover artist for a particular project, they want to have the peace of mind that they have paid their invoice. Thus, the commercial and the broadcast rights help in simplifying the process.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response ) Recording

In-Flight Announcement and In-Phone Recording: The cost of IVR recording is dynamic from time to time Amendments are required for this kind of recording because the facts and stats need to be corrected. This is categorized into two parts

1) Welcome IVR prompt for the main menu and 2) Basic IVR prompts for the sub-menu. In addition to the recording, the cost of file splitting and naming adds an extra cost to the overall project.

What are broadcast fees and usage fees?

The usage fee is commonly called the licensing fee or the buy-out fee. This fee is paid to the performer as compensation for the value they add to the project for a definite period.

In the United States, the usage fee or the broadcast fee is presented in the form of a package that includes a session fee and the usage fee. On the other hand, there are different layers of usage fees in India as per the needs and demands of the client and the artist.

Basic Rights and Buy-outs:

Like in the entertainment industry, the rights of voiceover artists may depend on many factors. Some of the major factors include:

The location, National or International, Regional

Number of the audience who will listen to the voice-over recordings

The platform on which the recording will be used like Digital platforms like  Hotstar, Amazon Prime, paid YouTube ads, and Facebook ads. Spotify etc

The length of time for which the recording will last

Different voiceover artists offer different types of rights.

These rights fall under three different categories that include:

Basic rights: This right is prevalent worldwide. This is a non-transferable license to use the recordings as long as you are not making any profit from it. It covers projects like phone recordings for personal use.

Commercial rights: The commercial right or the buy-out right basically means that you can use the recording to make profits as long as the project’s reach is limited. For example, it can be used for corporate projects, social networks, and audiobooks.

Full broadcast right: This is the highest level right in which the recording can be used for the internet, TV commercials, and video streaming. This is mostly used for projects with a widespread public reach.

How to set voice-over rates according to the different media usage.

Website Usage Rights: When the voice-over tends to be used on the website promoting services or products is called website usage rights. Prices for website usage depend on the website’s reach if the brand is popular the prices are to be quoted according to the brand’s value.

Digital Media Rights:

The voice-over tends to be used on Audio-based and video-based platforms like Hot Star, Gaana, Spotify, etc. Since these service providers are charging fees to their subscribers, therefore, some royalty should be given to the voice talent as well, so the one-time royalty fee would be half of the master’s audio fee. For example, if the cost of master audio is $400 the royalty fee for voice-over usage on digital media will be $250

Other OTT Platforms: Spot Ads

Some voice talents are working for web series, and Nowadays some of the other platforms started inserting ads during each episode of the web series, so if the voice-over is used on these platforms we still call these rights Digital media usage rights,
Facebook and YouTube ads are categorized on this platform.
We call it Spot Ads as it was inserted in television breaks.

How much can a voice-over artist demand?

A recording by a voice-over artist can range from $100 to $10,000 depending upon the type of work, the target audience’s size, the campaign’s timing and duration and the usage rights. As the video marketing industry is growing because of the digital revolution, the demand for voiceover recordings is growing with each passing day. The content is becoming more accessible to clients as well as artists. At the present moment, there are confused clients and misinformed voice artists who don’t have much idea about their talent’s rights and the fees they can demand.

Just like the royalty fee for singers is fixed, it is crucial to have a standard protocol to determine the exact fee and rights for voiceover artists too.

The price quoted by the voice-over artist might not be considered as the standard rate because voice-over is a pure form of art so any voice artist is free to quote whatever a voice talent wishes to quote according to the voice project requirements.