How much does professional voiceover cost?

I’ve been told that being in VoiceOver is great for the pub. As in, a great answer when someone with a pint asks you what you do. I’ve found that the associated questions around my job occupy about a pint’s worth of time.

The first questions I’m usually asked is: how did you get into it? The second is: how much do you charge?

In this article I’m going to talk (in less detail then I ever have to someone holding a pint but in just the kind of detail you need before you hire a voice actor again) about what VoiceOver artists should be charging. And why. 

Disclaimer: I’m leaving digital marketplaces OUT of the conversation here. While, mostly due to incredible pushback from creative freelancers, markets like voices.com, Fiverr and Voice 123 are improving, they still encourage practitioners to underbid each other and take a massive cut of the proceeds all while failing to inform the customer base about what appropriate rates for VO actually are, but that’s for another dispatch. 

Here I’m going to talk about what a professional Voice Over talent charges, what that fee is comprised of, and why it’s turned into a confusing question these days. 

Where to start

Back when I was a jobbing actor with an agent who booked everything I did, I knew exactly what a VoiceOver cost. It was fixed by the union I was membered with (MEAA in Australia at the time) and the only time it changed significantly was when the promotion was broadcast somewhere out of the ordinary – like in the cinema.   

It seemed pretty straightforward then, so when I became a full-time voiceover, and moved the majority of my work online, I wasn’t prepared at all for how difficult costing even quite simple projects became ESPECIALLY now that the portals for it take many and varied digital shapes. 

Before I say anything else, as a talent working for a global client base, there’s a great resource that I base my rates around and it’s this: The Gravy for the Brain Rate Card.

It’s an online guide to voiceover rates around the globe – searchable by country and then by genre, it’s a great place to start if you’re costing a project. It’s comprehensive, frequently updated and gives typical lower, middle and upper fees for different types of voiceover genres.

No-one will ever know why it’s called Gravy for the Brain. If it was called something like: The Definitive Current Guide to Voice Over Rates we’d all be better off, but it’s nonetheless a great resource and for now it behoves all of us on this side of the mic to keep sending it out in the hope it’ll be bookmarked wherever it goes. 

Let's dive in.

How VO rates are calculated

So here’s the skinny. Most voices are freelance so actual fees differ from individual to individual. Hopefully though, the following will ballpark it for you so you’ll be primed the next time you negotiate rates with a VO artist.

The average VO rate is made up of these 3 things:

1) A Basic Session Fee (BSF)

This is what you pay a talent for turning up to the studio pretty much, it's their basic fee, in essence, the fee agreed to record a script without any 'usage' or 'residuals' attached. Sometimes (sometimes not) includes the editing of the work.

Unions globally set minimums for this, freelance VO artists take those as a guide and set their own, usually based on their level of experience. In the UK where I’m based a BSF ranges from £200 - £350. Wherever you are in the world, it’s reasonable to expect the BSF to be in line with where the VO artist is physically working. That Gravy link has some good intel on the difference, I’ll also go into variations on BSFs a bit lower down. 

2) Usage

This is the additional fee based on where the VoiceOver is going to end up. It is also THE BATTLEGROUND of VoiceOver work and the key way that talent working over marketplaces under-fee themselves. 

A usage fee is basically a license to air the work and is paid IN ADDITION TO a BSF. It’s distinguished broadly between PAID and UNPAID media.

Paid media means someone is buying media space to air your voice, this includes TV, paid online use (YouTube, social media) and radio. Basically, if money is changing hands to air the material then part of that budget goes back to the VO artist.

Unpaid media usage on the other hand is any business related use where media space has not been bought (eg hosting an explainer video on your website, organic spread on YouTube etc). Usage for unpaid media is less than paid media as the overall project budgets are generally lower. Head to the Gravy Link for more.

It’s my experience that usage fees confuse clients. In the case of paid online use for instance, the usage fee can be up to 400% of the BSF. The concept behind usage fees is something you’ll definitely be familiar with – it’s just that you may not associate it with voiceover work.

Where union rules apply, it’s worth knowing that usage fees – aka licensing fees or buy-out rates – are a legal requirement for many voiceover jobs.

Most people know that you can’t download a Taylor Swift song and simply pop it on as a backing track to a video (YouTube will automatically stop you from doing this for instance).  Or copy a photograph to use on your website, or copy film footage to sell your product… we have to licence these things because the rights belong to the performers or creators. It’s a totally accepted part of the industry. 

It’s the same for Voice Artists. Recording the voice is one thing, being able to use it commercially is another – and that’s where usage fees come in.

Here’s how to think about it: even though the VO artist only records the material once, you (the client) will be making money from it for as long as that campaign lasts, let’s say a year. Usage fees are there to mimic a pay structure where the VO talent is paid to deliver your message and sell your brand every single time it airs for that full year. Again go to the Gravy Rates for a detailed look at what usage is for different VO types.

3) Production

Lastly, most VO artist will charge for additional production tasks like synching the material to your visuals, adding background music and the like. Back in the day, you would be paying an engineer a whole separate BSF for this, as the majority of freelance VO talents now do their own engineering, the price of a VO has gone down overall in the past 10 years. I still use an editor for big jobs like Audiobooks though, so read on for how production fees are folded into...

The different kinds of VO projects

Still with me? Great. So now, hold those 3 fee components (BSF, Usage and Production) in your head and come along with me now into the different KINDS of VO jobs, where you’ll find some key differences in how things are costed.

The jobs that keep me busy day-to-day are:

• Audiobooks

• Corporate narrations / explainers

• E-learning

• Telephone systems or IVR.

AUDIOBOOKS

Depending on which country you’re in, the fees can vary quite significantly.

The most important thing to know about Audiobooks is that they’re costed per finished hour – that’s per finished hour of the edited book. Not per hour of recording time.

It’s also worth knowing – if you’re trying to work out a cost – there are about 9000 words in a spoken hour. So a book with 54000 words in it will be about 6 hours long.

Important to note that even for experienced audiobook readers, it can often take two hours of recording time to get one finished hour.  And what we produce is a “clean edit” – a mistake-free recording – ready for post production.

The prep, the recording and the clean edit are all included in our per finished hour fee. Which – in the UK – can be anything from £75 to £150+ per hour and in the US anywhere between $100 – $400.

Bear in mind, we also prepare the material beforehand, its an acting job after all. So when you take this into account the PFH rate is an absolute bargain as up to 3 hours of work (preparation, recording and editing) can go into one you of finished audio on our side.

CORPORATE NARRATION  / EXPLAINERS

Corporate narration is my bread and butter. It can cover lots of different types of voice-work including museum and gallery audio guides, brand videos, explainers for new products and medical narrations. 

Where costing is concerned, this is where the standard 1,2,3 (BSF, Usage, Production) structure most commonly applies.

Again, The Basic Session Fee is the cost of recording a script before any usage is attached, it's the artist’s minimum rate. In the UK, the average BSF is around £200 – £350 per hour for an experienced, professional voiceover.  In the US, it’s worked out slightly differently but it’s round about $300-$400 per hour. Of course this will differ per individual.

The BSF can move up – say, for medical or complex scripts – or even move down – say, for smaller, local companies or repeat work. It’s up to the individual freelancer. Worth noting that most voice artists are prepared to negotiate – it’s as much about building relationships as making a buck.

Again, the BSF is simply the cost of recording the script and doesn’t include any usage fees. Be prepared to negotiate usage on top of the BSF.

ELEARNING

Is most commonly costed per word. Typically 30 – 60 pence per word in the UK. In the US – it’s costed in a number of different ways – per word, per minute or per hour.  The per word cost is typically 20.-30 cents.

These are some reasons that ‘per word’ is used:

• E-learning projects are often long – some have many thousand of words in a single course – so it’s a straight-forward, easy way to accurately cost them;

• E-learning is often read at a more measured pace, with space for learners to absorb information – so per word means that you’re not paying for pauses;

• There is no separate usage fee for e-learning – it’s all built into the cost. Which is great for clients and voiceovers.

If your e-learning guide includes multiple file or ‘slide’ exports be aware that this will incur additional costs. I, for instance, include 10 exports for free and charge £1 for each subsequent export.

TELEPHONE MESSAGING OR IVR

We’re all familiar with telephone messaging or IVR (interactive voice response) systems. We use them every day.  

But if you want to employ a voice artist to give your telephone system some polish, do be aware that each prompt is priced separately. And whilst each individual message might be quite short – big firms like banks or utility companies or airlines often need hundreds of alternatives.  The cost in the UK is anything from £7-£15+ per prompt but if you only need a few, most professional voice artists have a minimum starting fee regardless of number of prompts – which could be £100 or £150 whether you have 1 or 10 voice prompts to record. In the US, IVR is costed slightly differently – per word or per minute.

So, let’s recap:

A VO rate is broadly made up of 3 considerations.

1- a BSF

2- PAID or UNPAID media usage

3- Production

Where it comes to different genres of VO:

• Audiobooks are costed per finished hour

• Corporate projects start with a Basic Studio Fee and you need to be aware of usage costs

• E-learning is costed per word and the usage fee is built in

• And IVR systems are priced per prompt – and may well have a minimum charge

There are of course other genres, and I haven’t delved properly into the whole usage, buyouts and commercial rights side of VoiceOver as usage is very case dependant, but this was hopefully a useful start. 

And if all you remember is the BSF and the fact that usage fees actually exist – then that’s something.

Finally, an inalienable truth

You’re not going to find a professional voice artist for £5 – or even £50. We just don’t work for that kind of money. As with most professions – whether you need a pedicurist, an architect or a doctor –  experienced, fully-trained professionals who charge the right price for their service will be the smartest investment every time. 

So, am I the right VoiceOver artist for you?

I’m a conservatory trained, full-time Australian and British voiceover artist and creator with a 20 year track record, if my sound is right for you, then the answer might well be... yes!

You can listen to my voice demos here and find out for yourself.

And, for chat about voiceovers, and all kinds of creative stuff, please connect or follow me on LinkedIn here.