Voice Over Rate Guides

Voice Over Rate Guides

Using Voice Over Rate Guides

When hiring a voice over talent and fixing your budget for your project, there are many variables to consider. Yet all of which can be addressed with current and accurate Voice Over Rate Guides. Especially relevant are these questions:

  1. Union or Non-Union talent?
  2. What size of market? Which domestic or international markets?
  3. Duration of use?
  4. Which media? Web Usage is not inexpensive anymore, and is now more in line with conventional broadcast.

Union and Non-Union Rates

First, let’s look at the current rates for Union Voice Over Talent with the SAG/AFTRA rate calculator. This is an excellent interactive guide to show producers exactly how much a union voice over costs and what the money goes to. Even as a non-union voice talent in a ‘Right to Work’ state, I use these standards as an important reference. An eight-week option for an internet-only commercial is $1833.30. The days of a couple hundred bucks for internet use as a side item is long past.

If you have selected a non-union voice over talent, The Global Voice Over Academy (GVAA) has an excellent rate guide for Non-Union voice over work. As well as detailing non-union and union rates for radio, television, corporate, and E-Learning voice overs, it features a breakdown for rates by US markets. Most noteworthy is the newest addition to the rates: the overview of Web Usage. This is imperative as ‘internet only’ isn’t an excuse anymore for low budgets. Furthermore, the internet is now just as important as television or radio and in many cases has greater reach and impact. The GVAA guide Web Usage covers:

  • Commercial Web-Only: Paid Placement, Pre-Roll
  • Social Media Usage
  • Non-Commercial Informational Web Videos
  • Internet Streaming Radio
  • Internet Closed Platform Radio
  • Digital Greeting Cards
  • Podcast Intro/Outro

International Voice Over Rate Guides

Gravy for the Brain put out another comprehensive rate guide for all types of media for the UK market. While I’ve seen rates slip a bit for the UK lately, especially for explainer videos, I hope this and other voice over rate guides will help reverse that trend.

In addition, French voix-off talent Thomas Dormoy discusses various rates in France in his blog here. I find that his rates are the same as my experiences with working for French clients. For a list of other recommended international voice talents, please see my post here.

One of the better European markets for requiring American English voice overs is Poland. As a result I’ve had the pleasure of working for many producers and talent rosters there, and the rate guide at Mikrofonika is thorough and well-presented. Hence, it gives a good benchmark also for comparing to other European markets outside of the UK, France, and Germany. And they have great creative projects too, like the one here where I play Leon the Cat!

Remember, just as no voice over talent is one-size-fits-all, rates will vary depending on the market, usage, and experience level of the talent. However, it is great that for both producers and talents alike that SAG/AFTRA and the GVAA have put together such comprehensive and easy-to-follow voice over rate guides. Most importantly, they both have addressed the prevalence of Web Usage and that it should be paid for accordingly.

Finally, if any of you have access to rate guides in various international markets, please write to me. I’ll add them to this post and be sure to credit you. Thank you!

All the best,
Lance

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