Pro edition
Rate Card.
The public page publishes the matrix. This is what goes out with the quote. A rate card that lists only prices is half a document — the other half is what happens when the campaign changes, which it always does.
Already in the session fee
Four things nobody should be invoiced for separately, listed so nobody wonders.
- Direction, live or recorded Source-Connect, Zoom or a phone patch. Not billed, because a session where nobody can hear the read is a session that gets done twice.
- One round of pickups Any change to the script within 30 days of the session. A second round is a half session fee, and in eleven years it has been needed four times.
- Broadcast-ready delivery 48kHz/24-bit WAV and MP3, de-essed, with room tone at head and tail. Split files per take if the edit wants them.
- The renewal figure, in writing Quoted in the confirmation email before the session, held for sixty days past the term. Nothing about it is negotiated later.
What changes cost
| Change | Cost | Why that number |
|---|---|---|
| Second medium added mid-term | Matrix rate, pro-rated | To the day. Adding pre-roll in month eight of a twelve-month radio licence costs four months of pre-roll, not twelve. |
| Territory extension | Difference only | One market to national is the national figure minus what was already paid. Nobody pays twice for the overlap. |
| Tag or endline swap | $95 | A new final line on an existing spot. It is a real session with a real setup, and it is nothing like a full read. |
| Rush, under 4 hours | +35% | Genuinely disruptive to a booked day rather than a surcharge for the sake of one. Quoted before it is accepted. |
| Session cancelled inside 24h | 50% of session fee | The slot cannot be resold at that notice. Outside 24 hours there is no charge at all. |
Five clauses
These are what make the matrix mean anything. The second one is the reason a small number of briefs go elsewhere.
- Named usage
- The licence names medium, territory and term. Any use outside those three is unlicensed, and the remedy is the matrix rate for the actual usage, not a penalty.
- No synthetic voice training
- The recording may not be used to train, fine-tune, or evaluate any speech synthesis or voice-cloning system, and may not be supplied to a third party for that purpose. This clause is not negotiable and it is the reason a small number of briefs go elsewhere.
- Credit and moral rights
- No credit is required. The recording is not to be edited in a way that changes the meaning of what was said, which is a different thing from editing it for length.
- Term start
- The term runs from first air date, not from delivery. A spot that sits on a shelf for two months has not spent two months of its licence.
- Exclusivity
- Not included by default. Category exclusivity within a territory is priced at +30% of the licence for the length of the term, and only in categories where it means something.
Four things that actually happened
And how each was settled. None of them ended in a lawyer, because the licence said what it covered before anybody needed to argue about it.
The campaign ran three weeks past the term.
Pro-rated at the matrix rate for those three weeks, invoiced once, no penalty. Almost every overrun is a scheduling accident rather than anything else, and treating it as theft is how a working relationship ends over $200.
The spot was recut for a different medium.
That is a new licence for the new medium, at the matrix rate, from the date of first use. The session fee is not charged again — no new recording was made.
The client was acquired and the brand changed.
The licence follows the recording, not the company. The new owner inherits the term and the renewal figure. Nothing is repriced because the buyer got bigger.
The audio turned up in a region it was not licensed for.
Geo-restricted platforms leak, and this is usually nobody’s fault. Worldwide is 3× national on the matrix; in practice we extend the territory from the date it was noticed and get on with it.