dkambury

There's a lot of legalese nonsense floating around this thread, but it's really quite simple: on Fiverr, under the system we've all agreed to, Commercial Rights and Broadcast Rights are not included in a VO gig unless either explicitly specified by the seller, or explicitly granted by the seller from your purchase of said rights. It's no more complex than that. You may not like it; you may not think that's fair. You are even welcome to your opinion, but you should know you are setting yourself up for failure. No, it's not "like owning your car except the right to actually drive it." That's a weak analogy, but let's take it for a spin: it's more like owning your car, but not having a license to drive it because all that "legal stuff" is just the State trying to steal your hard-earned money. You can certainly drive that car all you want, and you may even get away with it. At least for a while. But if you get caught driving that car without a license? No driving for you! If you choose to ignore all that, post a video on YT without securing the rights, and it is discovered, you would be legally liable in a civil suit. If your YT channel is like most — like mine — and in the bottom 1% of channels, chances are nobody will discover your skulduggery. On the other hand, if your YT channel has millions of viewers, that civil suit would be worth a lot of money, so I guarantee you it would happen, as well as having your video removed, and having a strike against your account. It's a matter of professionalism. I've found, working with professionals and non-professionals alike, that the pros don't think twice about paying the asking price, or maybe negotiating a better price. What they don't do is chisel. They don't complain about a $50 extra, because it's part of what they're buying. They don't short the word count (yes, people do that), and they don't take offense. Because they are professionals, and they are successful. Amateurs, on the other hand, do chisel. They'll acknowledge they need to pay rights in the requirements, then not include them. They'll under-count the words. They'll avoid any Extras that cost them only $15. They think by stiffing the VO person, they're pulling a clever fast one. These people are not ever going to be successful, because they are acting like they've already failed. I guess it comes down to value. If you think a VO artist's voice adds value to your channel (and believe me, we do ad value — I've heard some of the cringy self-narrated or AI-narrated content out there), and if you're monetizing your channel, then pay them fairly. It's funny, talking about fairness. Too many YT creators want VO folks to do a dozen 10-minute videos for $5 each, saying "I'll give you lots of work every month, so it adds up!" So here's some perspective: A single 10-minute VO at $15/100 words (cheap) would cost $225 for the the words alone. 10 minutes = 1500 words. A dozen of those "little" 10-minute videos? $2700. Compare that to the $60 total the YT creator wants to pay, and then they complain about another $50 for rights? That falls under the rubric of "get real," or as my partner like to say, "move on, dot org." If you want a good working relationship with a VO person, talk with them without copping that "I'll do what I want with your work" attitude. You'll get much further right out of the gate. Then, understand what you're asking: a bargain basement price for somebody who has invested a good amount of money in the training and professional tools to give you a quality product. It's why you don't ask your cousin Jimmy or ChatAI to do it for you: you know a professional voice adds both value and credence to your video. Finally, if need be, negotiate with the seller up front to come to an agreement you're both happy with. Whatever you do, make sure that however it's accomplished, that you secure the Commercial and Broadcast Rights. If you're decent to work with, and have a legitimate reason that you can't afford the extra $50, then tell the seller up front. You might get a reduced price. You might even get a freebie. Who knows? The thing is, we don't want to screw you. We want you to be happy you worked with us so you give us a good rating, so you come back for repeat business, or just because we take pride in what we do. But we also don't want to screw ourselves. You may wish those rights weren't there as extras; you may even think they're bullshit. It doesn't matter really, because they are there, so either accept it or go talk to Cousin Jimmy. Let's hope he has a mic.

You know, asking VO actors for VO work is kind of like if somebody will give you their job. Hate to break it to you, but it's just not going to happen, as I am sure you now realize. That said, what Joy said above, there is plenty of legit help out there. I'd suggest you get familiar with YouTube's vast array of VO help, even some like from Bill DeWees who addresses getting gigs on Fiverr specifically. You might also avail yourself of some Fiverr sellers in this category. I can say — from personal experience — that this made all the difference for the success of my gig: I hired The Gig Doctor, who went through my entire gig with me, made a couple small changes, and literally within a day, my gig took off. Try it, you'll like it!

I'm not a fan of Fiverr's business model (as my Success Manager can attest to), but I think it's fair to say that if you read the agreement you made with Fiverr, you would have understood from the top that they take 20%. Of everything. Even tips, for which they charge both the buyer and seller. As you yourself said, right in the title, "be aware before working on this platform!" Ironic, huh? Look, I think Fiverr is unethical and greedy. But, that's the agreement we all accept. I also don't like it when they take 1% for releasing our earnings "early" (I use irony quotes there, because that money's already in the bank and cleared). and I think that's the point. If we take our money out "early," they can't skim the interest by keeping it in the bank, so they skim it from us instead. In short, I think Fiverr has a very unethical business model. But again, that's the deal we have all signed up for, and unless they change, or we force them to change, that's how it rolls.

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.

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.