Updated
You were sent a term in an email and you need to know what it means. This page defines the words that turn up in voiceover quotes, briefs and contracts. Each entry stands on its own, so you can read one and leave.
The terms are grouped by what they do. To find one by name, use the list below.
Jump to a term: Agent commission · Alternate take · Audiobook · Baked-in ad · Broadcast · Buyout · Conflict-out · Connected TV · Cycle · Dealer spot · Donut · Dynamically inserted ad · E-learning · Exclusivity · Explainer · Finished hour · First refusal · Flight · Holding fee · Host-read ad · In perpetuity · In-store · Industrial · IVR · Lift · Market · Metro · National · Non-broadcast · OTT · Paid social · Pension and health · Per finished hour (PFH) · Per finished minute · Per word · Pickup · Pre-roll · Promo · Regional · Royalty share · Scale · Session fee · Signatory · Tag · Term · Territory · Unit · Usage fee · Wild spot
The two parts of a fee
Session fee
The session fee pays for your time and your performance. It covers the recording itself, the takes you give, and the file you deliver. It does not pay for where the recording is used. A short read and a long read can carry the same session fee if the studio time is similar. Usage is priced separately.
Usage fee
The usage fee pays for what the client does with the recording. It moves with the size of the audience, the places it runs, and how long it runs for. Two clients can book the same hour and owe very different usage. If a brief does not state usage, ask before you quote. How usage is built up is covered in voiceover rates.
Buyout
A buyout is a single usage fee paid once, in place of fees paid per cycle or at each renewal. What it buys is set by the media, territory and term written beside it, so treat the word as a question rather than an answer. Some clients mean all rights forever. Some mean one year in one medium. Ask which media, which territory and which length of time the fee covers, and get the answer in writing before you agree. There is more on voice over buyouts.
Length of use
Term
Term is the period during which the client may use the recording. It usually starts on the first air date rather than on the recording date. A term of one year means the licence ends after that year unless it is renewed. When the term ends, the client must stop using the recording or pay again. Write the start date down.
In perpetuity
In perpetuity means forever, with no end date. The client may keep running the work for as long as the company exists. There is no renewal, so there is no second payment. It is the most expensive shape a licence can take, because you cannot ever sell that use again. Treat it as a different thing from a one year term.
Cycle
A cycle is a fixed block of use, traditionally thirteen weeks. The idea comes from broadcast scheduling, where campaigns were bought in quarters. At the end of a cycle the client either renews and pays again, or stops running the work. Cycles let a client keep a campaign alive in short steps. You are paid each time one is renewed.
Flight
A flight is a run of dates when the advert actually airs. A campaign may have two flights in a year with a gap between them. Flights sit inside the term; the term is the outer limit. A client may want to pause between flights and keep the rights alive. That pause is what a holding fee pays for.
Holding fee
A holding fee keeps a campaign on the shelf without it running. The client pays so that you do not take similar work while the advert is idle. It is common in union advertising and rarer elsewhere. You are being paid for your unavailability, not for airtime. If a client wants a long pause, price the pause.
First refusal
First refusal is a request to hold a date until the client decides. You keep the slot open and turn down conflicting bookings for that day. It is not a booking and it does not pay by itself. Ask how long the hold lasts and when it drops. If another job wants the same date, tell the first client and give them a deadline.
Where the work runs
Market
Market is the size of the audience inside one country, counted from the cities or areas where the work runs. A single city is the smallest market and a whole country the largest. How market is counted.
Territory
Territory is the number of countries the licence covers, from one country up to the whole world. It is priced separately from market, and work priced by the job does not carry it. How territory changes a quote.
Unit
A unit is one finished piece of audio or video. Three different scripts are three units, even if you record them all in one hour. Usage is normally priced per unit, so the count matters as much as the length. Ask how many units the brief covers before you quote. Versions of one script may or may not count separately.
National
National use means the work runs across a whole country. It reaches the largest audience of the standard market sizes, so it carries the heaviest usage of the three. A network television buy and a nationwide streaming buy are both national. Ask whether the country named is the only one. Anything beyond it is a separate territory.
Regional
Regional use covers a defined part of a country, such as a group of states or a broadcast region. It sits between national and metro in audience size, and in price. The boundaries are worth confirming, because clients use the word loosely. Ask which regions, by name. A long list of regions can add up to national use.
Metro
Metro use covers one city and the area around it. It is the smallest of the standard market sizes and carries the least usage. Local car dealers, clinics and shops usually buy at this level. If a client buys several metros, each one is normally counted. Confirm the city list rather than assuming one town.
Where it plays
Broadcast
Broadcast means television and radio that the public receives without paying you directly. It has the widest reach of the traditional media, so it carries the heaviest usage. A broadcast licence is defined by market, term and the number of units. Streaming and online video are usually treated separately. Check whether the brief includes cable and satellite.
Wild spot
A wild spot is a broadcast commercial bought station by station rather than across a network. The term comes from union television and radio agreements, where wild spot use is priced by the cities it airs in. Ask for the list of cities and the term before you quote.
Dealer spot
A dealer spot is a commercial made for a group of local dealers, most often car dealers, rather than for the maker's national campaign. It usually runs for a set period in the dealers' own markets. Union agreements treat it as a category of its own. Ask who is paying and which markets it covers.
Non-broadcast
Non-broadcast covers everything that is not aired to the public on television or radio. Training videos, trade show loops, museum audio and internal presentations all sit here. The audience is smaller and usually known, so the licence is written around the setting rather than around the market. Ask who sees it and where. That is what you are licensing.
OTT
OTT stands for over the top, meaning video delivered over the internet instead of by a broadcast signal. It is licensed as its own medium and is not included in broadcast. Streaming and paid social usage.
Connected TV
Connected TV, often written CTV, is streaming video watched on a television set rather than on a phone or a laptop. It is usually licensed alongside OTT. Streaming and paid social usage.
Pre-roll
Pre-roll is the advert that plays before the video someone actually wanted. It is bought online and is usually short. How pre-roll overlaps with OTT and paid social.
Paid social
Paid social is advertising the client pays to place in social media feeds. It is different from posting to their own account, which is organic use. Paid placement reaches people who do not follow the brand, so it is licensed as advertising. Clients often forget to mention it. Ask whether the work will be boosted or promoted.
In-store
In-store use covers audio played inside shops, showrooms, petrol station screens and other places of sale. The audience is the people in the building, so the licence is written around the number of locations and the term. Ask how many sites will play it and whether any of the audio will also run online.
Work outside advertising
Industrial
Industrial, sometimes called corporate, is voice work made for a company rather than for the public. Safety films, sales training and internal announcements are typical. It is normally quoted as a session with a defined use, not as a broadcast campaign. Length and the number of scripts drive the number. Ask whether any of it will be advertised publicly. How to quote narration covers corporate work in full.
Explainer
An explainer is a short video that describes a product or a service, usually for a website or a sales page. The read is conversational and the script is tight. It is priced as non-broadcast work, with the fee shaped by length and by where the video is embedded. Ask whether it will also run as paid social. How to quote narration explains when an explainer becomes an advert.
E-learning
E-learning is narration for a training course, usually delivered in modules. Word count matters more than anything else, because the sessions are long and the scripts are dense. It is often quoted per finished hour or per thousand words rather than per script. Updates and re-records are common, so agree how those are charged. Most of it is internal use. How to quote narration covers course work.
IVR
IVR stands for interactive voice response, the recordings you hear in a telephone system. Prompts, menu options and hold messages all count. The work is short but the file count is high, so it is usually quoted by the prompt or by the block. Ask how many prompts there are and how many sites use the system.
Audiobook
An audiobook is a book recorded as narration, usually unabridged, for sale or for a library. It is priced per finished hour or as a royalty share, rather than by usage. Ask for the word count, the number of characters and whether you are editing the files yourself. Audiobook rates per finished hour covers each kind of deal.
How narration is counted
Per word
Per word pricing sets the fee by the number of words in the script. It is common for short narration and some e-learning. It is easy for a client to check, but it ignores how hard the words are to read. Agree a minimum fee so a very short script still covers the session.
Per finished minute
Per finished minute pricing sets the fee by the length of the delivered audio, not the time spent recording it. It is common for corporate narration, explainers and some e-learning. Ask for the final word count, because the finished length follows from it. The voice over script timer turns a word count into minutes.
Finished hour
A finished hour is one hour of audio as the listener hears it, after editing has removed the retakes, pauses and mistakes. It is the measure behind per finished hour pricing. It is not the time you spent in the booth, which is always longer.
Per finished hour (PFH)
Per finished hour, written PFH, prices a job by each hour of finished, edited audio. It is the usual unit for audiobooks and long e-learning courses. One finished hour takes several hours of recording, editing and checking, so the rate covers all of that work. Audiobook narration rates per finished hour explains how it is quoted.
Royalty share
Royalty share is an audiobook deal in which the narrator is paid a share of sales instead of a fee up front. It moves the risk from the rights holder to you: if the book does not sell, you are paid little for the work. A hybrid deal pays a smaller fee up front plus a share of sales. Ask how sales are reported and for how long the share runs.
Podcast adverts
Host-read ad
A host-read ad is a podcast advert read by the show's own host, in their own words. It is part of the episode, not a separate voice over booking. If you are asked to voice an advert that plays inside a podcast, it is not a host read, and it is licensed as advertising.
Baked-in ad
A baked-in ad is an advert recorded into a podcast episode permanently. It plays for as long as the episode is available, so ask how long that is. A baked-in ad that stays up for years is a long licence, and the term in your quote should say so.
Dynamically inserted ad
A dynamically inserted ad is placed into a podcast episode at the moment someone plays it, so different listeners hear different adverts. The same recording can run across many shows and many months. It is licensed like other digital advertising, by media, term and territory.
Parts of a script
Promo
A promo is a short advertisement for a programme, a station or an event. Broadcasters run them inside their own airtime. The read is usually energetic and the turnaround is fast. Promos are often booked in batches under a running agreement rather than one at a time. Ask whether the licence covers one station or a wider network.
Tag
A tag is a short line added to the end of an existing advert, often a local address or a date. The body of the advert stays the same. Tags are quick to record and are usually counted as separate units, because each one runs somewhere different. If a client asks for many tags, count them. They are not free.
Donut
A donut is an advert with a fixed opening and closing and a hole in the middle. The middle is filled with different copy for different stores, dates or offers. You record the outer sections once, then the variations. Each filling is normally counted as its own unit. Ask how many versions the client needs before you quote.
Lift
A lift is a shorter advert cut from a longer one you have already recorded, and a cutdown is the same thing by another name. A sixty second read becomes a thirty second version using the same audio. Because it runs as its own advert, it is usually counted as an extra unit. Some clients assume lifts are included. Say in your quote whether they are.
Alternate take
An alternate take is a different performance of the same line, given so the client can choose later. Reading a line three ways in the session is normal and costs nothing extra. It becomes a separate item only when the versions are used as separate adverts. The word is about choice, not about extra deliverables. Ask what the takes are for.
Pickup
A pickup is a re-record of part of a script after the session has finished. Script changes and mispronunciations are the usual causes. The pickup fee is what you charge for that return to the booth. Fixes to your own errors are normally free. Changes the client makes after approval are usually chargeable, so say so in your quote and agree a window for free pickups when you book.
Limits on other work
Exclusivity
Exclusivity is a promise not to voice competing brands for an agreed period. It restricts your other income rather than paying for reach, so it is priced on its own line. Exclusivity explained.
Conflict-out
To be conflicted out is to be unable to take a job because of an exclusivity you have already signed. Keep your own list of active exclusivities and their end dates, because you are the one who will be asked. Exclusivity explained.
Union terms
Scale
Scale is the minimum fee set out in published union scale agreements for a given type of work. It is a floor, not a market rate, and it is defined by the medium and the use. Non-union work has no scale; you set your own rates independently. Whether scale applies depends on the contract the job runs under. See union and non-union work.
Signatory
A signatory is a company that has signed a union agreement and must hire under its terms. If the producer is a signatory, the job is a union job and the paperwork follows the agreement. If they are not, the job is not covered, whatever your own membership is. Ask which entity is signing. The producer and the agency are often different organisations.
Pension and health
Pension and health is a contribution the hiring company pays into the union funds on top of your fee. It is calculated as a share of your fee, and it does not come out of your pocket. It appears as a separate line on union paperwork. Non-union work carries no such contribution. Do not read it as part of what you are paid.
Money taken out
Agent commission
Agent commission is the share your agent takes for finding and negotiating the work. On union jobs it is often added on top of the fee by the hirer; on non-union jobs it usually comes out of your quote. Which of the two applies changes the number you should send. Ask your agent before you quote, not after.
Working out your own number
Knowing the words is not the same as knowing the fee. The calculator asks for the medium, the market, the term and the number of units. It returns a range built from public and private industry sources and published union scale agreements. Your first three quotes are free. After that it is $2.99 a month, or $28.70 a year.
For a worked example, read how much a voice over should cost. To price a job now, open the VO Rate Calculator. If a term in a brief still does not make sense, ask us.