rights to my voice

[Announcerlarry]

I was employed at a company for 17 years and voiced the phone greetings (i.e. Welcome to... press your party's extension..." and "we're currently closed, the office hours are..."
I have been laid off from that company and requested my voice to be removed from their system. they asked how much it would cost to buy the rights for the messages to remain on the system.
is there a 'going rate' for this type of voice over?

thank you,

Larry Tornambe

[robscig]

HI Larry. There are no standard fees for non union voice mail systems like this, so you can feel free to charge as much as they will agree to pay. And by the way, the company does not have to remove your voice, nor compensate you for it because you voluntarily recorded the messages while you were employed by them, so they own them (called a "work for hire"), so you should definitely consider yourself fortunate that they are offering to buy you out.

RS

[Mike Sommer]

FYI: Since you were an employee of the company when you recorded this, there may not be much or anything you can do about it. Understand that anything you produced, made, developed and or conceived while in the employment of the company, is technically the property of the company. You agreed to do it of your own free will, and you were paid or compensated via you're paycheck.

The only thing you can do is try to figure out what it would cost for them to have someone else record it. They could find another employee to do it, in which there cost would be minimal if anything at all. Or they can hire a hobbyist to do it for $50 or less, or a good pro voice to do it for around $200 to $500, or a really good actor from $500 to $800, or get Morgan Freeman to do it for $5000+ (all this would depend upon the depth and complexity of the script)

If you get $300 out of this, feel very lucky.

[Announcerlarry]

thank you for the insights. I was going to go for $thousands, but they won't pay that I am sure. so i should grab what I can, based on your advice. thank you.

[JohnWeeks]

You could offer to do updates for them in the future. So, I would mention that to them and your price to do it.

[Mike Sommer]

I would just walk away. You're justifying the lay off by being a little petty.

[Announcerlarry]

I wanted to have it erased and walk away. the hopes are to go to a competitor (i've interviewed at 3 of them). If I am at a competitor I certainly don't want my voice on the old company's system. Not without a large pay off. Although this is an office unrelated to broadcasting, i am a professional announcer of 28 years.