What does a voice recording cost?
The honest answer is that it does not depend on how long I stand in the booth. It depends on how far the recording travels afterwards.
A twenty-second read is done in twenty minutes. Whether it then plays once at an internal meeting or for three years in a national TV campaign makes no difference to the effort and all the difference to the value. That is why voice fees across the industry are set by usage, not by time.
Five factors
- GenreAdvertising, corporate film, documentary, e-learning, IVR — each category has its own base.
- MediumTV, radio, cinema, web, app, trade fair, internal. An internal film and a TV spot are not the same thing.
- TerritoryRegional, national, DACH, worldwide.
- DurationThree months, one year, several years, unlimited.
- Number of versionsOne spot, or a campaign of twelve cutdowns — each version is its own usage.
Two worked examples
A radio spot for a regional garage, Switzerland, one year, one version: the bottom of the scale, a single line item.
The same script as a national TV and online campaign, DACH, three years, six cutdowns: a multiple of it — not because the reading takes longer, but because six versions run for three years in three countries.
Everything else sits in between. Tell me medium, territory, duration and number of versions and you get a firm number instead of a range.
The official tariffs
I work to the guide tariffs of the two professional associations I belong to. Both publish their own lists — here are the originals, so you can check rather than take my word.
- VPS — Vereinigung Professioneller Stimmen (Schweiz)2026 rate list, recommended guide prices, PDF in German, French and Italian.www.v-p-s.ch/de/tarife.html
- VDS — Verband Deutscher Sprecher:innen (Deutschland)Gagenkompass 2026, compiled from members' actual market data.www.sprecherverband.de/vds-gagenkompass/
Always included
- Direction and recording
- Editing — breaths and fluffs removed
- One revision round on the same script
- Clean files in the agreed format
Charged separately
- Extension or re-use once the licence period has run out
- Additional versions and cutdowns
- Widening the territory, say from Switzerland to DACH
- Script changes — that is a new recording, not a revision
Common questions
What does a voice recording cost?
The price does not follow studio time, it follows usage: genre, medium, territory, licence period and number of versions. An internal training film costs a fraction of a national TV campaign, even when both run the same length. The VPS (Switzerland) and VDS (Germany) guide tariffs are the basis.
How quickly do I get the recording?
Usually the same working day. A final script in the morning normally means files in the afternoon.
Can we direct the session live?
Yes. Over Source-Connect, ipDTL, Cleanfeed, Zoom or Teams you listen in studio quality and direct as we go. A call is enough; you need no special software at your end.
Is a revision included?
One revision round on the same script is included. If the script changes it is a new recording — not a technicality, but the difference between fixing a take and performing a new one.
Which languages do you record in?
Standard German, Swiss German (Zurich dialect) and English. For French and Italian I am glad to refer colleagues I work with regularly.
May the recording be used to train AI?
No. My recordings are not licensed for training speech models or for voice cloning. That exclusion is in every engagement by default. If you need a synthetic voice I am the wrong address, and I mean that plainly.
What is a buyout?
A buyout is the fee for the right to use a recording in defined media, for a defined period, in a defined territory. It is separate from the recording fee because it has nothing to do with effort in the booth and everything to do with reach afterwards.