Quoting a rate… 

…for a voice job is not as straight forward as pricing a hammer or a head of lettuce. I understand, everybody shops for price, however, price is just one of the many factors determining a sale, else we’d all be driving the cheapest car we can find, regardless. To quote a rate for a voice job at least the following two items commonly factor into a solid quote for most if not all types of jobs:

  • usage – what is the purpose of the recording? 
  • reach – how many people will potentially hear the recording?

Accordingly, rates will vary.

The rate for a radio commercial for the little pizza place around the corner in small-town Anywhere will obviously be lower than the rate for a nationwide commercial for a well known pizza chain. Some jobs need to be quoted at a certain rate per word, some per finished minute etc. I don’t want to bore you with all the details. A client’s budget also factors into quoting a rate, but at any rate 😉  the old saying holds true: “you get what you pay for…”. Keep that in mind.

A professional voice is an added value.

I’ve been working as a  professional voice actor for almost 20 years now. My mission is to be an added value to your project. Feel free to contact me and discuss your next project and how I can help you. 

To give you a basic idea, a place to start, you will find some GVAA recommended rates next.

Standard Rates

IMAGE FILM / EXPLAINER VIDEO / CORPORATE

Standard rate

up to 2 minutes: $350 
up to 5 minutes: $500
every additional 5 minutes: $100 

Reduced: non-profit

up to 2 minutes: $275
up to 5 minutes: $375
every additional 5 minutes: $100

Subsequent Changes, Pick-ups

up to 2 minutes: $150
up to 5 minutes: $250

1 min. = 900 characters including spaces (corresponds to about 130 words). Abbreviations to be pronounced in full (plus or e.g.) or numbers (1884) must be replaced by the written words before the characters are counted.

Usage rights:
Full Buyout Rate. Includes editing. Delivery of RAW audio only. No time limit. On the entire Internet (homepage & third-party sites, video portals, social media, etc.), for presentations, DVDs, conference intros, at trade fairs, events & in apps.
Not included: file naming/splits, advertising (in TV, radio, cinema, stadium, POS etc. or on the Internet e.g. as pre-roll, autoplay, push, switching etc.)

AUDIOGUIDE

up to 15 minutes: $300
each additional 15 minutes: $185

(without picture or time coding)

1 min. = 900 characters including spaces (corresponds to about 130 words). Abbreviations to be pronounced in full (plus or e.g.) or numbers (1884) must be replaced by the written words before the characters are counted.

Use: worldwide & unlimited in time for museums, audio stations & sights. Price applies to each exhibition.

E-LEARNING

per word: $0.25
per finished minute: $35
per finished hour: $1,500

Minimum: $100

1 min. = 900 characters including spaces (corresponds to about 130 words). Abbreviations to be pronounced in full (plus or e.g.) or numbers (1884) must be replaced by the written words before the characters are counted.

Use: worldwide & unlimited in time for internal, intranet, closed user groups, training of employees

IVR / MESSAGE-ON-HOLD

up to 1 min .: $150
up to 2 minutes: $200
up to 5 minutes: $450
each additional 5 min .: $225

1 min. = 900 characters including spaces (corresponds to about 130 words). Abbreviations to be pronounced in full (plus or e.g.) or numbers (1884) must be replaced by the written words before the characters are counted.

Use: worldwide & unlimited in time, all fees apply per end customer and per language. In the case of continuous texts (complete sentences), no distinction is made between waiting loops, answering machine or voice dialog announcements or announcements for IVR systems (Interactive Voice Response). A “prompt” is defined as a file of up to 3 sentences.