Cost to hire a good voiceover guy?

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?
 
I did the same as Ray and it came out perfect. Was also in Florida lol, I believe Rockledge if I remember. He did it for free.

On fiverr sure you can get some great work cheap, but any voice work is likely going to have an unwanted accent.
 
On fiverr sure you can get some great work cheap, but any voice work is likely going to have an unwanted accent.

I just scanned through their voice talent and I’m not sure that’s true. Not for $5, though. It ends up being closer to, but still cheaper than, going through the studios and clearing houses. But still pretty inexpensive.

And no weird accents, like these guys:

LINK

ANOTHER LINK

ONE MORE
 
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I hate to say it, because it’s wrecked the gig economy in many ways, but have you checked Fiverr?
I found one guy on there. Still not cheap considering my word count of about 1,100.

I got a rough quote from one of these voice websites. $1,500! That's ridiculous for a YouTube release. It would take a million views just to break even on my voiceover costs.

Do you have an example of the type of voice you do want?
Deep, middle aged, grave, sobering voice. American or British.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyEUyqfrScU (British)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw1eg4zySHU (American)

I might have to get creative and post a notice on NowCasting.com
If all else fails I'll just do it myself.
 
You're kidding me, right? In the UK, a v/o artist would cost £500 max for a one-day read. This would be a high-quality professional who would deliver a superb read. That's $650 USD.

I had a read the other day for £400 including studio time. $1,500 is waaayyy too much.
 
$1,500 is waaayyy too much.

For a short read, perhaps. It also depends on who you’re looking at.

Don LaFontaine would spend his whole day moving from studio to studio, session to session. He’d often knock the read out in a take, sometimes a couple of takes. (I sat in a studio in 1998 and watched him work... it was quite impressive.) Each stop was a few thousand dollars.

That’s not most people. The ones who cost an arm and a leg are typically the most in-demand and the most recognizable. Anyone else charging that much is either delusional or a marketing genius.

A good voice actor working from a home VO booth can be $75 for a :30-:60 commercial read at the going market rate.
 
I hired a top-notch actor who does a LOT of voice over work for the role of the GPS in my feature DETOURS. I paid him $500, he came to the sound studio with us, and worked for about 6 hours. He was worth every penny of it. But I wouldn't/couldn't have paid $1,500.
 
I just looked on fiverr. One "deep" male voiceover was fake, and another one had a serious unintended southern accent. Kept looking and a lot use fx for the pitch. I'm still looking for you.
 
I just looked on fiverr. One "deep" male voiceover was fake, and another one had a serious unintended southern accent. Kept looking and a lot use fx for the pitch. I'm still looking for you.

There are plenty of crappy sellers offering lowball prices for cheap results. Some of them use AI and aren’t even recording anything. Listen to demos, read reviews. Lots of diamonds in the rough there if you take a little time.

You should be able to get a good voice and a quality recording of 1100 words for well under $500. Some closer to $150-200.
 
$1,500 is waaayyy too much.

Really depends on who and what usage. What constitutes an internet commercial may be a grey area depending on what exactly you’re doing.

You should be able to get a professional VO artist for $400-600 pretty comfortably, but I couldn’t say for certain without knowing what the project and usage is.
 
Really depends on who and what usage. What constitutes an internet commercial may be a grey area depending on what exactly you’re doing.

You should be able to get a professional VO artist for $400-600 pretty comfortably, but I couldn’t say for certain without knowing what the project and usage is.
Just for a YouTube video with ads, but I'm putting a lot of work into it with music and all. Trying to do a really good parody of "Life After People". I'm gonna run a casting call on NowCasting at $250 just to see if I can find a diamond in the rough. Otherwise I might just have to use my own voice. I don't have that baritone voice, but because it's a comedy Mockumentary it might still "work". I can add 1 semi tone of pitch shift without it sounding too processed. I'll get your opinions when I post a little of it.
 
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