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 literally making their voice 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 with the product and the character. All in all, a 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 artist in India vary, and industry experts are unanimous in saying that creating voice overs is no doubt challenging work. You can be called into the studio anytime, and the client is paramount. Almost a decade back, 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 basically 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 upon 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 basically 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
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
The spot is basically 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 royalty to artists. The same is applicable for the voiceover artists too.
Voiceover artists are the talent as well as the producer of the recording they create. Thus, they have the right of ownership over the content they have created. If you don’t pay royalty 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 with the aim of making 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 as a time to time amendments are required for this kind of recordings 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 are 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, 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 out of 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 rights in which the recording can be used for internet, TV commercial, 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 use on the website promoting services or products is called website usage rights. Prices for the 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: when the voice-over tends to use 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 so the royalty fee for voice over usage on digital media will be $200
Other OTT Platforms: Now some ott platforms started inserting ads during the movies, so if the voice-over is used on these platforms we still call these rights Digital media usage rings, Facebook and Youtube ads are categorized in this platform.
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 size of the target audience, and the timing and duration of the campaign. 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 fee 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 vo project requirements.
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