The reels are at the top because that's what you came for.

A thirty-second read takes twenty minutes — Whether it runs on one website for a year or on national television for three. The recording is the cheap part and it is the same work either way
Usage is what changes the number — Where it runs, for how long, in which countries, and whether it is paid media. Those four answers are the quote — everything else is rounding
Which is why a quote needs the brief — "Two hundred words" cannot be priced. "Two hundred words, internal training video, one year, no paid media" can be priced in about four minutes
Buyouts — Possible, and priced as if it ran everywhere forever, because that is what a buyout permits. Often a shorter licence is much cheaper and does everything you actually need
If usage changes later — A top-up fee, calculated from the original, with no penalty for having started small. Starting small is the sensible way round
Nobody is trying to catch you out — Ask what a licence covers before you buy it. Any voice who bristles at that question is telling you something useful

"Per finished hour" is the honest unit — For long form. An hour of finished audio is roughly three hours of work, and quoting per raw hour is how a cheap rate turns expensive
Free retakes, paid re-records — If your script changed, that is a retake and it is free. If the brief changed — a different tone, a new direction — that is a re-record and it is quoted
No agency markup here — You are talking to the voice. If you would rather go through an agent, that is fine and the number will be higher for the same recording
Small budgets — Charities, students and first-time founders get a real number rather than a brush-off. Say what you have and it is either yes or an honest no

No training, by default — Recordings made here may not be used to train, fine-tune or build a synthetic voice. That clause is in every contract and it is not removed on request
Nothing is hidden in a buyout — A buyout covers where and how long the recording runs. It has never covered making a new voice out of it, and any contract that quietly bundles the two should be read again
If you actually want a synthetic voice — That is a real product and it can be discussed openly — separately priced, separately consented to, and with an end date. The objection is to it happening silently
Why it matters commercially — A cloned voice can be made to say things the person would refuse. That is a risk to your brand as much as to me, and it is why this is a clause rather than a preference
What this clause cannot do — Stop anybody cloning a voice from audio already published. It is a contract, not a technology — it says what happens between us, and that is worth having anyway
Disclosure both ways — If any part of a delivery ever used synthetic processing, you will be told. You should expect that answer from anybody, and be suspicious when it is vague

Treated booth, not a wardrobe — Say what yours is honestly. A producer can hear a room in four seconds and being caught overstating it is worse than admitting it
Broadcast-quality means measurable things — Noise floor, no room tone, no processing baked in. Ask for a raw unprocessed sample if you need to check — it is a fair request and it is never refused
Live direction — By whichever route you use — a session link, a video call, or a phone patch. Set up beforehand rather than in the first ten minutes of your hour
Or record it unattended — Cheaper and faster for most corporate work. You get the file, a set of alternates, and a free retake if a line lands wrong
Files as you want them — Format, sample rate, one file or split by paragraph, named the way your editor needs. Asked before recording rather than corrected afterwards
Turnaround — Same day for anything under five hundred words, booked in the morning. Long form is quoted with a real date rather than an optimistic one