How to set Voice Over Rates

So it’s always a little daunting to quote on a voice-over project. Very often the client will give you only a few basic specifications and it’s not enough information to enable you to give a considered quote. So first off what are some of the things you got to ask for in order to quote with all parameters taken into account?

#1 – Ask where the voice-over will be used. Is it meant for broadcast or non-broadcast? If broadcast where will it be aired – TV, Radio, OTT – On which platforms, which regions – Local, Regional, or International and

# 2 – For how long? A few weeks, months, a year, two years, or in perpetuity. If it’s a full buy out you have to be compensated fairly for that. It needs to be factored into your quotation. The larger the audience it is served to; the higher your quotation should be.

# 3 – If it’s non-broadcast whether it’ll be used online and on social media, out of home, cinemas, museums, apps, organically, passively or will there be any paid advertising push as in a full-blown campaign? If yes, how long again? The more platforms it’s going to play, the longer the duration, and the higher the rate.

# 4 – You will need to understand the word count or the duration of the voice-over in terms of seconds, minutes, or hours. This will also have a bearing on the cost.

# 5 – If you need to play multiple character voices, you could charge extra for every additional voice.

# 6 – If you have to do the VO in a few hours on the same day – That urgent delivery should be an additional cost.

# 7 – You could charge an additional fee to do a live directed session and charge differential rates for the duration of the session – Like one rate for a one-hour session and another rate for a 2-hour session.

# 8 – You could charge extra to go over to a studio where travel is going to cost you extra.

# 9 – You could also charge extra for adding background music to the voice-over. A non-copyrighted track from the internet will cost you and your service to add this in should also be factored in.

# 10 – You could also charge for editing – Either buffer in the cost for your time taken to edit the material or charge it as an extra at a fixed rate of $50 per hour. If say it involves separating audio files and splitting them up into 100s of files – then you could charge $1 per file split.

There are many charging methods.

You could charge…

Per Hour

Per Minute

Per Job

Per Word

Per Page

Per Day

Refer to the global voice academy rate guide to give you an idea of the market rates set for each genre of voice-over. It’s pretty comprehensive. Not all narration is charged equally. A lot of factors go into the charging methods and arriving at a fare rate based on market rates, your own experience level plus the various budgets clients have is a tricky business. A lot of VO artists find it a bit confusing and are sometimes not sure whether they are quoting too low or too high. Most of us want quote a rate that is acceptable and compensates us for our time and expertise and we certainly don’t want to drive the client away because he or she feels we’re too expensive.

Lowballing on the other hand affects the entire industry and drives prices down further affecting everyone in the long run. That’s why it’s important to learn the market rates for each genre of VO and to quote fairly irrespective of whether you’re a newcomer to the industry or not. Allow the clients to decide which voice they prefer to go with. Your demo or previous work should speak for itself. After all, you are offering the same service.

Experience would matter where the billing is happening per hour in the studio – if you have to re-take lines many times for example or are slower at nailing the read – then it’ll probably cost the client more to hire you so you offering a new-comer discounted rate could offset that so they don’t feel they made a mistake hiring you.

Doing a profile check on the client; whether they are a Multi-national company, listed on the stock exchange or whether they are a small medium size enterprise with a smaller budget – you can quote according to the budgets assigned based on their affordability factor as well. A dipstick check on their budget helps you understand their needs better and you can take a call based on your own comfort and bandwidth to take on new projects at that time. If it’s not such a busy time, you could easily take on a lower-budget project in your downtime – all the small projects after all add up at the end of the month.

Tools like a handy script timer to calculate how long it’ll take you to complete your project in the studio and how long it’ll take you to edit the content, help you quote accurately as well.

It’s a good practice to have a base fee that you set yourself. Your recording and performance fee that you will charge per hour let’s say and then build on top of that based on all the parameters stated above like usage and loading and licenses required.

It can be a bit intimidating but with a good reference guide and a little practice, you could draw up your own pricing chart and refer to it whenever you get that next inquiry. So you can rest assured and feel prepared to state your price upfront, boldly, and confidently. Happy Quoting!

For more information and to deep dive into the world of voice-over with tips and tricks to get started out in this exciting and creatively challenging career you can click here to sign up for our upcoming Wonders of the Voice Beginners and Advanced guides that will unravel the voice-over world. The course is run by a veteran and award-winning voice-over artist Noella Menon who has coached 1000s of aspiring voice-over artists since 2015.

For a quotation for a voice-over for your next media project or corporate video visit www.voice4ads.com or WhatsApp Noella on +6582004142.