Are you considering using AI voice-over generators for your campaign but are unsure of the hidden costs? These three campaign pitfalls will help you determine the cost of an AI voice compared to a personalised, unique human voiceover.
Lawrence Ola and Ruby O’Kelly, EM Voices Artists
Straight Up Costs Of AI Voice Over Generators vs Human Voice Overs
While the entry-level pricing looks affordable, this is a false economy that could end up costing you more in the long run. Some hidden costs of AI voice generators include:
– Licensing fees – some generators charge additional fees for commercial usage, or per-use costs, which can add up fast.
– Quality control -since AI voices lack emotional nuance, cleaning up awkward or unnatural AI voices requires extensive editing to sound natural or flow in a way that’s truly conversational.
– Customisation costs—editing an AI voice for a brand to create campaign consistency can take a lot of time and money (and doesn’t ensure any protections that the voice will remain unique to your project).
– Copyright and compliance fees—the ethics and copyright controls in this emerging technology are still severely lacking. If synthesised voices resemble real individuals without their consent, you are opening yourself up to legal fees and copyright lawsuits without even knowing it, which is a very real concern that is currently gaining attention in the copyright law space.
By comparison, working with a human voice-over artist puts you in direct control of the outputs. In a single session, you can effectively personalise your voice and campaign on the spot with an experienced professional. While the upfront costs may seem higher at first, you’re saving money on editing, re-recording, customisations, and potential legal issues, with a clear understanding of your licensing fees and overall campaign costs from the get-go.
Voice Over Professionals Guide Your Campaign To Success (And Away From Costly Campaign Failures)
Your campaign’s success can hinge on the right voice. Creating the perfect voice over is a team sport matching you and your production team with a voice-over agency and their artists. Having professional agents in your crew, who know their industry inside-out, means they can match your brief to the right artists and voices, make suggestions that could help improve the success of your campaign, and advise against common voice over mistakes.
On the other hand, using an AI voice over generator means you’re on your own. A flaw in the brief, a poorly matched voice, a typo in the script, a cliche tone, an off-brand voice—no one is there to catch these seemingly small but ultimately catastrophic mistakes that could end up costing you the entire campaign. When something’s not feeling quite right, it’s not going to identify the cause or suggest a solution like professionals can. AI generators are co-pilots, at best – a ‘yes’ person who is eager to please, but still unsure how. Even when they are able to give you exactly what you want – it might be the complete opposite of what your campaign actually needs.
“A client’s first line in the brief is often, ‘we don’t want them to sound like a voiceover’. On occasions, we might call the agency to discuss a certain type or style we’re after. The agents are always suggesting new or alternate voices – and we have had clients change their mind, when we make suggestions like, ‘what about a female?’ or ‘have you considered someone younger/older?’
EM Voices are just a great bunch of people – they know their stuff, they’re always helpful with suggestions and accommodating scheduling sessions that work for us and our clients.”
Les Molnar, Production Alley
Lee Perry, EM Voices Artist
Time Is Money; Would You Rather Spend It Editing A ‘Passable’ Voice, Or Perfecting Your Campaign?
On the surface, AI voice over generators seem fast. However, the hours you’ll spend editing and customising a mediocre AI voice to make it sound natural will surprise you. Instead your valuable time could be invested in tailoring your campaign into something unique, inspiring and polished.
With humans voicing your campaign, in just a few hours you can have professionals completely personalise your campaign, with services including; script review, voice casting and recording – all while you work on other elements or even other campaigns! So, ask yourself – is your time really best spent trying to tinker with “emotion features”, “intonation adjustments”, “customisation requests” and “humanization” issues, just to achieve a mediocre end result that hasn’t been stress-tested or perfected with industry professionals?
We know you are passionate about your brand. You know that authenticity is a crucial element to successful messaging. Why would you waste precious, valuable time trying to emulate humanity when, considering every step the Artificial process requires, the real thing is cheaper and creates superior outcomes?
AI Voice Generators Vs Human Voices; You Get What You Pay For.
When it comes down to it, saving money on creating a voice over is going to cost your campaign more than can be forecasted. From hidden costs and increased post-production charges to flat-out campaign failure and wasted advertising spending to serious copyright infringements and legal fees that could destroy more than just the campaign, AI voiceover generators are simply not ready to deliver success for your brand.
