Pay rates in voice-over…how do you feel about it? It can be a touchy subject.
What should you do? It all depends on you and the research you put into this somewhat confusing world of rates. There are industry standard rates and then there’s….everything else.
I began my journey on ACX. With a plethora of audiobook auditions to dive into, I did a few auditions before I finally booked a “royalty share” project – a short book focused on sports nutrition. A month later, I booked another audiobook.
That didn’t work out so well for me.
One author never published the book I narrated. The other author decided to take his book off Audible and needed my permission to do it. He made a few dollars and I never got anything, so I decided only to narrate pay for production projects. This way I would get my money up front and not worry about my 40% royalty fee. After a year of auditioning on ACX, I decided to branch out to freelance websites: Fiverr, Upwork, and People per Hour. An advisor, who helped me get started in voice-over, was very successful on Fiverr and suggested I set my rates starting at $5 for 150 words and increase my rates gradually.
Yeesh. It seemed rather low, but hey I’m a beginner right?
I booked a few gigs at first, and then it became more consistent. Then I received an e-learning project on coparenting. The client wanted to pay me $650 for 3200 words. Whoa. This client is going to pay me $650 for a project I would normally charge $200 for? Wait a minute: I gotta do some research. I started googling voice-over rates, and my exploration began.
I found a rate guide on Voices.com. There were two categories: non-broadcast (corporate video, e-learning, etc.) and broadcast (TV, radio, digital). The non-broadcast rates were categorized by word count, and the broadcast rates were grouped by territory and media type.
I also discovered some rates on Voice Realm: very similar to Voices and it had MORE categories! Backstage’s ’What to Charge as a Voiceover Artist’, had a few rates, more rate guide resources (Gravy for the Brain, Global Voice Acting Academy Rate Guide, SAG-AFTRA) and meaningful advice. The article discusses voice markets, union jobs, and the value of experience. One tidbit shared on How Much Do Voice Actors Make? says the average voice actor makes 11K to 160K a year per ZipRecruiter. After a few days of reading, I knew I needed advice from some seasoned vets, so I signed up for a virtual conference.
This conference was exactly what I needed to get different perspectives on rates. There were SAG-AFTRA and Fi-CORE union members. Some participants hated Fiverr because of its low rates and perpetuity clauses. Some liked Fiverr because the platform helped launch their careers in voice-over. Casting sites like Voices and Voice123 were favored over sites like VoiceBunny. Some participants only had agents, others were only on casting sites, and some used a mixture of both. Regardless of what opinions people had, the phrase everyone echoed was ”know your worth”.
The issue for many voice artists are the choices you have and the journey you embark on. I started voice-over part-time while working a full-time job. I had no experience in VO, but I had some experience with audio production. I was able to book work without any voice-over coaching, but I did not understand all the rules of broadcast work and perpetuity clauses. Once I began to research rate guides and seek out experienced artists with different opinions, I had a better sense of what to charge.
I did not feel confident asking for industry standard rates until I had at least a year of voice coaching with a professionally produced demo. When asked what I charge, I use the GVAA rate guide as a starting point. My goal is to book within industry-standard rates. I will say that since I raised my rates, I have not booked with the same frequency, but the project quality has improved. The scripts, payment, and direction is much better. I’m not afraid to say no to a client who wants to pay less than 50% of the GVAA (Global Voice Acting Academy) rate. I always remember I’m helping clients achieve success, fulfill their vision, and accomplish a goal, and I expect proper compensation for doing so – you should too!
P.S. If you haven’t yet taken our introductory voice-over class, where we go over everything one needs to know about getting started in the voice-over industry, sign up here!
