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Should the buyer buy Commercial Rights for my voiceover?


ernesto_beta

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Hi. I've received an order for recording a 1000-word voiceover (aprox. 7 minutes) for a "gaming-specialized plattform". I don't know if it's a Youtube channel, a social media fanpage or both, or how big it is. The buyer hasn't paid for commercial or broadcast rights. The text doesn't promote any product or service in particular, it just tells stories, kind of "value content" stuff, like the one you find on famous Youtube channels or influencer accounts. I don't know how big this plattform is in terms of commercial potential. After all, content creators aim to make money like anyone of us here.

Should I ask him to pay for commercial rights? He could monetize with this content. Are there some questions I should ask him?

Thank you so much!

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6 hours ago, ernesto_beta said:

The text doesn't promote any product or service in particular

Commercial Rights and the TOS:

"By purchasing a Commercial Rights (Buy-Out) with your order, in addition to the basic rights, the Seller grants you with a license to use the Voice Over for any corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes. Corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes means any business related use for the creation of, or to promote a for-profit product or service"

First of all Commercial Rights apply "any business related use" - not just to promotion, and yes, a monetized YouTube channel does fall under "business related use".

How to handle this issue: You have have two options - 1) Ignore it and learn from your mistakes. Or 2) Kindly ask the buyer for more information about the project, including where it will be published, is there a website that it will be published on? Frame it in a way that you are just seeking more information in order to help you deliver the best voice over for their specific kind of audience. Say, "the more info I have, the better the voiceover will sound". Do NOT sound like you are accusing them.

Lastly, for the future, in your Requirements section, add a mandatory multiple choice question, asking what the voiceover is for. List 9 of the most common types of scripts that require Commercial Rights, and in the 10th slot, list: "This voice over is for PERSONAL use only, and is not intended for any business-related purpose". Then, add another mandatory multiple choice question, "Will you be requiring Commercial Rights? - Yes or No?".

The point is, make them give you the answers before the purchase is made. That way, if they attempt to deceive you, then you have the evidence you need to politely ask that they "update their order" to include Commercial Rights, and if they refuse, then you can ask Customer Support to intervein on your behalf.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@stevebatesvo Thank you very much for your reply! I'm very sorry for my late feedback. Soon after I learned that my voiceover wasn't going to be used in a Youtube channel, but in a "closed plattform" which "doesn't monetize from revenue share like Youtube". After that explanation, I said to him that he didn't have to pay for commercial rights. I did some upselling however, since he also wanted the audio edited (or free from errors or bad/second takes).

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  • 2 weeks later...
Quote

Should I ask him to pay for commercial rights? He could monetize with this content. Are there some questions I should ask him?

It always depends if the text content of your voice over is yours, if that is, you have the copyright on the text. 
Otherwise it is a work for hire, where your right to the phonogram is purchased for both private and commercial use, does not change much. 

If you charge for the commercial usage license, at least you must have written the lines, in addition to this you can sell the copy right and this type of sale is more profitable and is a surplus to a simple commercial license because it gives the buyer the full economic use of the audio and the lines or melody composed (such as publishing rights).

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Is it compulsory to buy commercial rights, as some sellers are forcing me to buy commercial rights, by paying extra,

I have clients in various category and for them, I buy voiceover service from fiverr. Their use would be in Youtube videos, audiobook narration, plays, etc....

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38 minutes ago, ajant852336 said:

Is it compulsory to buy commercial rights, as some sellers are forcing me to buy commercial rights, by paying extra,

It is. First of all if you are buying for your clients then you use seller’s work for commercial profit and then your clients will use it for commercial profit from YouTube, audiobooks etc. 

So yes, you do need to buy commercial rights. 

Edited by mariashtelle1
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Industry standard information on procurement of voice over works: 

If you intend to use the delivered work for anything business-related, even if it's just for internal use, then yes you are required to purchase the rights to do so. This includes Youtube videos, audiobook narration, plays, or anything for a dot com website or similar. 

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3 hours ago, ajant852336 said:

What happens if I don't buy commercial rights? 

Bad things: channel strikes and no revenue from Google Ads.

Video platforms, social media sites and web hosts have processes to deal with content theft.

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On 11/27/2022 at 8:13 PM, ajant852336 said:

 

What happens if I don't buy commercial rights?

What happens when you steal or break the law? The Rights Holder could seek legal action against you for using their work without the Rights to do so in that manner. Think about music and how many legal issues arise from the misuse and illegal procurement of songs and works from artists and the entities who own the Rights to said items. 

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45 minutes ago, kendal1747 said:

Won't this make it harder for new sellers? Just a thought.

From what AP said I imagine it's nothing to worry about in the short term. 

As a new seller my focus is on making the best first gig I can, including video and audio samples, I'm including commercial usage in my word count as that's what I feel is best, if anything was revised I'd prefer it to be the broadcast rights options as they're out of sync with the way the VO industry bills, something more like usefee.tv's BSF/TVR system makes much more sense imho.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Let me ask you this: when you have a job, do you expect to be paid for your work? Think about what you would do if your boss says "I know our contract states that I must pay you extra if you work overtime, but I just don't want to." If he then asked you to work the weekend for free, would you? 

Please. Anybody who wonders this, ask yourselves: do you want to be stiffed by your employer, and how good a job would you do for them if they did try and shortchange you? That is the answer to your question.

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On 11/17/2022 at 3:19 AM, alepeta said:

If you charge for the commercial usage license, at least you must have written the lines

I might be misunderstanding you here, but if you're saying that we can't ask for Commercial Rights if we didn't right the script, I don't believe that is accurate. Literally every job I've done (and I think everybody can say the same here), I am given a script to read. Our job is not to write the copy, but to read the copy. And the usage of our voice over determines the price of our work.

Per Fiverr themselves, "By purchasing a Commercial Rights (Buy-Out) with your order, in addition to the basic rights, the Seller grants you with a license to use the Voice Over for any corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes. Corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes means any business related use for the creation of, or to promote a for-profit product or service."

Please, correct me if I am factually incorrect here.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/8/2023 at 8:20 PM, dkambury said:

I might be misunderstanding you here, but if you're saying that we can't ask for Commercial Rights if we didn't right the script, I don't believe that is accurate. Literally every job I've done (and I think everybody can say the same here), I am given a script to read. Our job is not to write the copy, but to read the copy. And the usage of our voice over determines the price of our work.

Per Fiverr themselves, "By purchasing a Commercial Rights (Buy-Out) with your order, in addition to the basic rights, the Seller grants you with a license to use the Voice Over for any corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes. Corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes means any business related use for the creation of, or to promote a for-profit product or service."

Please, correct me if I am factually incorrect here.

In the context of my sentence it is certain that by also using copyright you have more rights to commercial use.

Exactly as you wrote, when you sell a product that you recorded yourself, with your voice, you have the right on the phonogram and on the interpretation so yes you have the right on sale for commercial use.

I’m sorry I misexpressed myself, my fault.

Hope you have solved all your doubts.

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