I have about 2 pages of narration needed for a YouTube video. Less than 10% of the voices I have heard fit what I need, and those small few have big lists of credits. I worry that they may be way out of my budget. In looking at some of these voiceover talent websites there's no guidelines as to how much you can hire these people for. Anyone have any clue?
Cost to hire a good voiceover guy?
- Thread starter Blade_Jones
- Start date
I would love to find out more on how the voice over community is viewed by the people who pay our wages. This is usually video producers like you! So this thread is very interesting. There is a huge disparity between voice over rates. There has been a downward pressure on rates recently due to the gig economy and sites like Fiverr. This is being constantly discussed within the voice over community.
$1,500 for a 1,100 word read which should be less than 10 minutes of audio does seem high to me. You are looking for a documentary read on You Tube so there is no commercial usage involved. Usage can be a very important part a voice over quote as the voice is usually licensed just like music is.
My price for this would be around $450 and is open to negotiation. I know of many other voice overs that would charge more than this and others who may charge less. In truth, the saying "you get what you pay for" is true when you go down to the levels of Fiverr.
We are all freelances and have to work out budgets and still get paid what we think we are worth. In both video production and voice over there are many different costs and reasons on how we get to our final quotes and I think if we all understood this better it would help in making budgets match.
If you have any specific questions on this I would love to discuss this with you.
$1,500 for a 1,100 word read which should be less than 10 minutes of audio does seem high to me. You are looking for a documentary read on You Tube so there is no commercial usage involved. Usage can be a very important part a voice over quote as the voice is usually licensed just like music is.
My price for this would be around $450 and is open to negotiation. I know of many other voice overs that would charge more than this and others who may charge less. In truth, the saying "you get what you pay for" is true when you go down to the levels of Fiverr.
We are all freelances and have to work out budgets and still get paid what we think we are worth. In both video production and voice over there are many different costs and reasons on how we get to our final quotes and I think if we all understood this better it would help in making budgets match.
If you have any specific questions on this I would love to discuss this with you.
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From your other post:
$150-$350 is very reasonable, especially without broadcast or commercial use licensing. And handing out free demo reads for prospective buyers on Fiverr is a losing ordeal. Does he have a basic, $5-10 gig? A few words, no usage licensing. Enough to know whether he has the voice you want. That’s a pretty cheap price to get a sample read.
Like anywhere else in the industry, especially for freelancers, everybody wants something for nothing. Or for next to nothing.
I think this quote from the same post says a lot:
People who make a living at this stuff have to... y’know... make a living. Like any freelance, you’re paying for the time, plus the overhead on the VO studio (whether a home studio or not), plus overhead to be able to do things like eat, pay bills, buy gas, and hopefully have expendable income on top of that. The things that any paying career would hopefully provide.
A good DP can be nearly $1500/day depending on the local market. And that doesn’t even include the camera. Gaffer? $750-ish. Audio? $500-700, plus $300 for a basic kit and additional $ for extras like extra wireless channels, camera hop, TC system with slate.
I get that you’re doing a YT video just for kicks. Is your YT channel monetized? It seems to me that you can pay a professional the professional rate to get professional results, or you can lowball it and understand that it’s a compromise between cost and quality.
$150-$350 is very reasonable, especially without broadcast or commercial use licensing. And handing out free demo reads for prospective buyers on Fiverr is a losing ordeal. Does he have a basic, $5-10 gig? A few words, no usage licensing. Enough to know whether he has the voice you want. That’s a pretty cheap price to get a sample read.
Like anywhere else in the industry, especially for freelancers, everybody wants something for nothing. Or for next to nothing.
I think this quote from the same post says a lot:
People who make a living at this stuff have to... y’know... make a living. Like any freelance, you’re paying for the time, plus the overhead on the VO studio (whether a home studio or not), plus overhead to be able to do things like eat, pay bills, buy gas, and hopefully have expendable income on top of that. The things that any paying career would hopefully provide.
A good DP can be nearly $1500/day depending on the local market. And that doesn’t even include the camera. Gaffer? $750-ish. Audio? $500-700, plus $300 for a basic kit and additional $ for extras like extra wireless channels, camera hop, TC system with slate.
I get that you’re doing a YT video just for kicks. Is your YT channel monetized? It seems to me that you can pay a professional the professional rate to get professional results, or you can lowball it and understand that it’s a compromise between cost and quality.
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At this point I'm way over budget. Gonna just use my own voice with a quality Yamaha SPX-90 harmonizer.
Fortunately I didn't have to hire any talent. Friends are doing the acting.
Monetized yes, but to earn $1,000 on YouTube you need about half a million views.
Well I wound up doing the narration myself by putting on my fake British accent and using the pitch shift on a Yamaha SPX-90.
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