Much more depending on the usage. The length of the audio counts in the rate but less than its use, how long and where it would be used.

For instance, a perpetuity buyout (one of the thing he should have negotiated), are very expensive. Audiobooks for instance are longer but cheaper. My rate is 350/per finished hour for audiobooks, which is pretty average in the field. While a 30 seconds national radio commercial for my country, I would ask between 350 and 500, and that’s with a limited time they would be allowed to use/broadcast it.

Here is a rate sheet for standard usage, if you are interested: https://globalvoiceacademy.com/gvaa-rate-guide-2/

I’m so excited, I don’t get to talk about this aspect of my job often :)) Thank you for your interest so far!

It would be devaluating the value and the work of voice over artists.

I’m not even a well known voice over artist and I get paid way more for words that fewer people will hear. And I’m not even in an union.

He got shafted.

Definitely not ridiculous to think so, considering how many people recognize his voice. Just like one great book will be bought by many people and make its author rich, a great line recognized by many people should be remunated as such.

The rights for usage should be much much higher. Just like recording Siri’s voice and an e-learning project might have taken the same time but the usage and how many people are going to hear the voice is widely different.

Furthermore, “it only took him a minute” is akin to say to a graphic designer why pay him so much for a website that took him less than a day to do: it takes years, practice, and skill to be able to do in only a minute.

If anything, considering that a lot of people seems to recognize his voice, he should have been able to retire on this simple few words.

Just like one good jingle or one hit wonder can make their author very rich.