By British Male Voiceover Artist Chris Tester
Not all voiceover budgets are created equal, and neither are all voiceover actors. There are plenty of opportunities with Blue Yeti mics and pillow for[not clear, 00:17] who will be willing to record your product for absolutely nothing. But is that what you really want? Assuming that it isn't, where do you really start with professional rates? If you know that your budget is low, then how do you negotiate with a VO? And are there any other essential elements that you should discuss as winners price?
Tip one, knowledge is power. Your first point of call should be the Gravy For The Brain rate card. It represents industry, standard fair market rates and breaks them down into different sections and regions, so you will have all the information you need to know what constitutes par for the industry. Obviously, certain details may still need to be confirmed by your project, but they'll still be able to give you a ballpark figure. For the majority of voiceovers, a quote will break down into two sections. There's the session fee and then there's the usage fee. The session fee is essentially the voiceover artists fee for pressing record and stepping into the booth, whether their recording is actually used or not. The usage fee might not actually apply to every project but it basically covers where and how long it's going to be used for. The biggest factor in price is going to be the size of the actual audience, the more eyes that you have on your content than the more you're probably going to be paying a voiceover artist.
The same thirty second animation will have completely different usage cost if it's being used internally for staff training, if it's just being posted on a company website that hardly gets any visitors. If it's being used on social media with thousands of followers, or if it's being used on YouTube, but as a pre roll ad, in which case it could potentially be reaching millions or tens of millions of people. This is one of the many reasons why a lot of voiceovers don't actually publish their rate cards on their website because there are so many multiple different facets that you need to judge. It's difficult to give an exact quote. To name check Gravy For The Brain again, I recommend you check out the voiceover licensing and usage video they did, which explains it very clearly in just a couple of minutes. Tip two appreciate that in perpetuity usage is problematic, increasingly with quite a few projects, clients are starting to ask for usage in perpetuity rather than for a limited time. Essentially, so that they can use the recording for as long as they want.
Now this can be less problematic in one sector as opposed to another, it can still be a very difficult request actually answer. Essentially granting usage rights in perpetuity leaves voiceover artists open to conflicts of interest. For example, I recorded a radio campaign for a pharmacy that was going to last for three months. When the client decided to extend that campaign for another three months, they paid me in additional usage payment as a result, which was great, because I'd actually booked another job with one of their rivals. Obviously I couldn’t voice both at the same time as it would have been a conflict of interest. So I was recompensed as a result with the usage fee but if the original usage had been in perpetuity, then I would have simply lost out. This type of situation is much less prevalent in the corporate sector where buyouts are typically more often requested but it still can be an issue.
So have some sensitivity before requesting it. Is a company really going to be using the same voice for two three or four years? Or are they actually likely to use it for just a year, in which case they should pay the usage for that. Tip three, be very clear about the perimeters of negotiation. A voiceovers rates are a voice overs rate and it's completely their discretion whether they accept or pass on a project as a result. But if you're super clear about the variables that you can offer in a deal, then you can make the process of any negotiation much more straightforward. Ask yourself, can you offer a variable time on delivery? Most projects tend to be recorded within 24 to 48 hours. Would you be in a position to offer some form of retainer? The cliche of a client who justifies a very low rate by the promise of future work that never materializes is a cliche for a reason. But if there is a consistent stream of work that you can offer, then maybe there is a group discount that can be agreed.
For e-Learning and long form projects, can you do the editing in house? Typically for any voiceover project, for every one minute that we're recording, we spend about two to three minutes actually editing. If you take that out of the equation, then the fees might be much lower as a result. In areas such as e-learning especially where the quote is often per word as opposed to per minute, then you might actually get a completely different rate if this is factored in. For video games with no budget, why not offer a percentage of the final profits of the game if it turns one. This would need to be made incredibly clear in any contract, but it's much better than just asking for free work. Tip four be very clear about the process of revisions and rerecord. And just to clarify what those two things are. A revision is a re-recording that is necessitated because the script has been changed after an original recording. So no fault to the voiceover.
Whereas a retake is when there's something in the delivery that wasn't quite right or we’ve mispronounced a word. Communication and information is key. So make sure that you always start with something like the Gravy For The Brain rate card in order to build your budget. And of course if you're looking for a quote for your voiceover project, anything that my voice my Fit, then please just drop me an email at chris@naturallyrp.co.uk.
Thanks as ever for checking out this video. Please do subscribe if you enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing you next week.