The Audio Committee has put together this guide to help members navigate voice agencies. Whether you're considering signing with an agency or already working with one, you'll find a clear overview of how the process works and what to watch out for.
This guide is here to make sure you know your rights, ask the right questions, and get a fair deal.
What is a voice agency?
A voice agency introduces you (the artist) to do voiceover work directly for employers (or ‘hirers’). Your work contract is directly with the hirer, who is responsible for paying your fees.
Your agent seeks work for you, submits you for jobs, arranges auditions and negotiates fees with prospective hirers. They may also invoice and receive payment from hirers on your behalf, and pass those earnings on to you. As payment for their services, an agent deducts a fee (commission) from your earnings.
Just like other types of talent agency, a voice agency is an “employment agency” under the Employment Agencies Act 1973. That means it is subject to specific legal rules and regulations about how it interacts with you and your earnings.
What are an agent's duties?
An agent has basic duties (known as fiduciary duties), to:
- Act loyally and in your best interests, such as when submitting you for work and negotiating fees and terms, and avoiding conflicts of interest;
- Act within the limits of their authority, such as may be set out in a written agency agreement;
- Account for monies received, by keeping accurate records and pay earnings promptly;
- Exercise reasonable care and skill, such as in negotiation and advice to you.
Agents have further specific duties, in relation to fees and accounts, imposed by the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. Some of these are explained below.
A written agency agreement may also set down further duties for both agent and artist.
Working with a Voice Agent: Step by step
You should not begin work through an agency without agreeing key terms of the relationship in a written agreement. Those terms should cover, at a minimum:
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Whether representation is exclusive or non-exclusive;
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How either party can end the relationship (termination) and any notice required;
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Commission rates and the sums on which they are charged;
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What commission remains due after the agreement ends;
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How the agency will process your personal data in compliance with UK GDPR.
Commission rates are a matter for agent and artist to agree. Most voice agencies generally charge between 10% and 20% of your fees + VAT (only on the commission sum, not your fee) if the agency is VAT-registered. Agencies are legally prohibited from charging a fee to both the hirer and the artist for work. The agency may charge one or the other but not both. You should look out for any term in your agency agreement which seems to provide for "double dipping" in this way.
Always negotiate commission if you think the agent’s proposal is too high.
Contact Equity for advice if you are unsure about an agency contract before agreeing to it.
When your agent asks for your interest and availability for a particular job, they should communicate all the information in their possession to allow you to make an informed decision on whether to be put up for the job or not. Before the agent submits you for the job, they should give you the following information. Information which the agent must provide by law is in bold:
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Name of the end-client, for example a company, brand or publisher;
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Name of the hirer;
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Dates of the work;
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Nature of the project and location of recording (if applicable),
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Recording fee;
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Details on the usage if applicable, including:
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Media on which the recording will be made available;
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Territories where it will be used;
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Corresponding usage fee.
The actual usage is sometimes confirmed at a later stage but, before submitting you for the work, the agency must give you information on what the fees for various usages would be. The agent cannot leave usage fees to be agreed after you have done the recording.
Once the booking is confirmed, the agent must negotiate terms with the hirer and send them to you for you to review and sign.
If you have given your agent permission to sign contracts on your behalf, the agent must still get your agreement to the specific terms before they agree to them. The agent should always provide you with the full contract for the work.
Prior to recording the agent should give you all relevant details about the session not already given, such as the precise duration and any further recording requirements, such as if you are due to record from your remote/home studio
If the client asks you to record more scripts than they initially agreed with your agent, you should call your agent before agreeing to any further recording.
If that is not practical, you should make a note of the materials recorded and inform your agent after the session to ensure any further recording time and work is reflected in the fee. This is particularly important in commercials.
Let your agent know how the session went and if, for example, it finished later than initially scheduled, which will require additional payment for your time.
Your agent must:
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Promptly invoice the hirer on your behalf;
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If necessary, chase payments when they become overdue under the agreed terms with the hirer (usually 30 days but sometimes up to a maximum of 60 days);
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Pay to you all fees received within 10 days of receiving them, minus agreed commission;
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Accompany all payments with a statement, which details the work the payment relates to, when and from whom payment was received, the amount and any commission deducted.
Important : Your agent should not ask you to invoice them for your fee. Agents have a legal duty to account to you and pay out earnings to you within 10 days of receiving payment from the hirer. Your agent must also be transparent with you about fees agreed with the hirer, as above. Any invoicing practices the agency adopts do not change those legal duties.
Contact Equity for advice if you encounter any delays with payments or if your agent has made deductions, such as commission, that are not agreed in your agency contract.
Your agent should keep track of what usage is made of your recordings and promptly invoice for corresponding fees as agreed in your work contract.
Typical usage licences are for 3, 6 or 12 months. If the hirer wishes to extend the licence, your agent should:
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Inform you and get your agreement to the extension
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Invoice the hirer for licence extensions or renewals
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Take action in case of licence breaches by the hirer or end-client
Employment agency or employment business?
Some voice agents tell artists they are not, in fact, an agency at all but operate as a production studio offering a full-service product to clients, which includes voice artists, whom they hire on a freelance basis. On that basis, they claim not to be bound by the duties of agents explained here, such as the requirement to be transparent about fees and terms of work up front, before the engagement is agreed.
What matters is not what the agency says it is but how it actually behaves, and whether its behaviour is consistent with the legal definition of an agency. This primarily comes down to whether the work contract is between you and the hirer directly – with the agent simply “introducing” you to the hirer – or whether your contract is with the ‘agency’ as the employer, who “supplies” you to work for their client. If you are engaged by the ‘agency’ itself, it may be operating instead under the legal category of “employment business”.
An employment business is not subject to the same rules as an agency, such as on transparency on fees offered by its client, because your contract is with the employment business, not the hirer. However, a voice company cannot “cherry pick” some features of an agency and others of an employment business – it is either one or the other. For example, a voice company cannot refuse to disclose the full fees offered by the hirer while at the same time negotiating a contract between hirer and artist and charging commission out of the fees. That would amount to acting as both an employment business and an agency.
If you are unsure whether you are engaged through an employment agency or employment business, your written terms are the first port of call. Contact Equity if you are unsure.
Sometimes terms are ambiguous on who your contract is with. In that case, the following factors may indicate one way or another:
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Feature |
Employment agency
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Employment business |
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Contract |
Between artist and hirer directly
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Between artist and business |
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Fee |
Artist pays commission to agency out of pay from hirer
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Artist agrees pay with the business, not hirer |
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Liability |
Hirer pursues artist if problem with the work
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Hirer claim is against the business |
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Substitution |
Hirer selects specific artist for direct contract
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Business can substitute artist for another |
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Credit risk |
Only pays artist when agency is paid
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Business bears risk of client non-payment and must pay artist regardless |
Contact Equity for advice if you are unsure about a particular voice agency and whether it is acting legally.
How are employment agencies and employment businesses regulated?
The Fair Work Agency (FWA) is a regulator with a statutory remit to monitor and enforce compliance with the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (among other regulations). Previously, agencies were regulated by the Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate but this body has been amalgamated into the FWA as of April 2026.
The FWA can investigate agencies who breach their duties under the regulations, such as where the agency charges a prohibited upfront fee, fails to give you all the required information about a job before introducing you to the employer, or fails to pay your earnings to you within the statutory time limit. The FWA has powers to require an agency to produce contracts, pay records and other documents for inspection.
If the EASI finds breaches of the regulations, they have enforcement powers to:
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Levy unlimited fines,
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Obtain a court order requiring compliance (Labour Market Enforcement Order),
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Obtain a prohibition order banning an individual from running an agency, or
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Bring criminal prosecutions for offences under the Employment Agencies Act 1973, such as breaching one of the above court orders.
Equity works closely with the EASI to bring problematic agencies to its attention. The union can support members to raise complaints to the regulator in appropriate cases. You can also make your own report via this form.
Glossary
END-CLIENT: The brand or commissioner of the work. For example, Marks & Spencer commissions an ad agency to create an advert. The ad agency subsequently contacts an agent to find a voice artist. M&S is the end-client and the ad agency is the hirer.
There are often more links in the chain: the ad agency can contract a video production and/or a localisation company to record the voiceover. In that case the hirer of the voice artist would be the video production or localisation company. But the end-client is still Marks & Spencer
LICENCE : permission to use your recordings, usually limited by time period, platforms, territories and formats, in return for a fee.
HIRER : the company to whom an agency introduces you to work for, or to whom an employment business supplies you to work for, such as an ad agency or production company.
AGENCY FEE : a fee charged by an agency to a hirer. If an agent charges an agency fee, they must not also charge commission out of your fee.