How Much Does Voiceover Narration Cost?

Voiceover

Jul 13

Written By Jessica Lewis

What does it cost to hire a voiceover narrator?

How much should I pay a voiceover artist? What should I expect? Why is voiceover narration so confusing!?

First, let’s discover the definition of Voiceover Narration:

“Voiceover Narration explains, teaches, sells or promotes a service or product.”

You want to get a price quote for voiceover and put it in your budget. Why is the voice talent being so picky with all the little details?

I’m going to break voiceover pricing down for you the simplest way I know how, because I’ve been extremely frustrated with it myself! But first, here are some examples of what narration is:

Here are some examples of a corporate script:

Here is an example of a short explainer video:

There are many things that go into finding out the cost of your script.

When you hire a voice artist, you’re collaborating with them to help explain, promote or market your product or service. You are partnering with their voice and personality to bring results, whatever those results or goals may be.

It’s a partnership. You need a voice that reaches your audience, and the voice artist loans his or her voice to your project. With this understanding, you can then agree on the terms or price of the voice over.

When you bring a script to a voice over talent, here’s what they’d like to know, if possible:

Timeline & Budget
Usage - how will the voiceover be used?
Length of Script
Reach - how many people will it reach?
Time - how many weeks, months or years will you use it?

Let’s dive into this a little deeper.

Timeline & Budget.

This is the very first thing voice artists need to know so they can find out:

Is there time in the schedule to take on this project?
Does the client have the right budget for their rates?
Can you negotiate the best rate for client and talent?
NOTE: not all voiceover talents are created equal and rates vary widely.

Usage: How will the project be used?

Is this for an internal corporate project that only a few or few hundred will see? Or will this be hosted on your website? Will it be shared on social media? Will you be paying for advertising spots - and running this as a national campaign? Usage can be broken down to local, regional, national and international or worldwide.

Words: How long is your script?

Use and share my Voiceover Script Calculator - for quick reference and other resources to test out!

Microsoft Word, Pages and Google Docs all have a word counter! I also use a handy tool in Google Chrome called Word Counter Plus. I can highly the words in a script, right click on my mac and then see how many words - without having to import them into Word or Pages or upload to Google Docs.

People: How many people will it reach?

How large of an audience will you be reaching? The more people, the higher the cost.

How many weeks, months or years will you use it?

Extra Costs:

Pickups

Many voice artists include a revision or two, which means fixing something small in the script. This is normally included in the original rate. Many times, clients want to rewrite the script after hearing it. This would then cost more, because the voice talent is essentially reading a new script. If you know the client will want 2-3 revisions and rewrites, build that into the cost when negotiating the rate with the voice talent. Knowing this up front will save a LOT of frustration and going over-budget in the end!

Live Session

Some clients like to live-direct the talent via ISDN, Source Connect, Skype or a Zoom Session. I've even done a live session via iPhone so they can listen in. This is an extra cost; be sure to let the talent know you need this as well and they will add it to the quote.

Adding Music or extra production

Some voiceover talent only do voiceovers and some can do some light production and add music. I personally love these two royalty free music sources - as they have some great modern feel:

Soundstripe.com and Artlist.io

Yup- they are affiliate links; I only share what I use and love!

Here’s where to find voiceover rates

GVAA Rate Guide

The GVAA rate guide is a great tool to bookmark when coming up with a budget for voiceover.

Always get a quote from your voice artist before assuming that you know the rate.

Debbie Grattan, a very talented professional female voiceover artist has written on this subject as well and I highly recommend reading her article as well! You can find the article here.

Hopefully this has given you a basic understanding of how to price voiceover narration. Each project is unique as well as each voiceover talent has unique workflows and talents. Though this guide will help you get a general idea of voiceover rates, you will still want to reach out to the talent and get a quote before moving forward.