Rates and what you are ACTUALLY paid
After multiple email inquiries and ZERO responses, I thought I would try here.
I have my rates set and when I actually get bookings the rate that I set is NOT reflected in what I am paid. For example, the rates are for a number of words. In one instance the rate I have SHOULD have paid me $115 for the booking based on the word count, but I was only awarded $27.08. That is a 75% OVERHEAD that was deducted from my rate. Is this normal??? and how are we actually supposed to benefit financially if this site claims 75% of the work we do?
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Hi Timothy!
Thank you for reaching out to us!
We sincerely apologize for the lack of reply to the emails you've sent us.
Unfortunately, it's taking us longer than expected to get our response time back on track. But we continue to work hard on it and look for solutions that might help us speed up the process.
I will search for your messages to review the project you mentioned and investigate what happened to your reward - as it should've been in agreement with your rates.
If you have not identified the project in any of the messages you've sent us, please provide the project's link or ID so that I can locate it.
Kind regards,
Thank you for the e-mails. you have just confirmed that this organization IS taking 75% of the work we book. MUCH higher if I just hired an agent. I can see 50% possibly... but 75% is downright cruel. I thought working in local Radio was bad. Yikes!
Hi Timothy,
We understand not everyone agrees with our markup and are happy to take in any suggestion you have for product development.
Our system is structured as to allow Pros to set their own rates so that we can ensure they'll always receive what they find feasible for their work, while setting our markup for the costs we need to cover on top of that.
This ensures Pros will never get anything below the rate they have set for themselves and makes the rewards easy to track.
However, we understand the importance of reanalyzing these structures from time to time and assure you it is on our roadmap.
If you have any suggestions regarding this or any other topics, we'd love to hear them!
Best regards,
Marina Russo.
How about not taking a 90% cut of the job. Please take into account that the client specifically requests us for bookings. When we set our rates what we see as "feasible" should reflect closely to the rate. If I want to get what I believe is "feasible" I will have to increase my rates exponentially especially if you are taking up to 90%.!! I have done speedies with far less wording that actually pay 2 to 3 times more. Since we don't know your "formula" for calculating rewards how is that in any way fair??. It could be changed at a drop of a hat and we would never know. I feel full transparency needs to be a part of your business as there seems to be quite a bit of dishonesty in the ratings system and pandering by customer support.
Hi Timothy,
I hope you're doing well!
I believe there's been some confusion as to how our markup works. We do not take a 90% cut out of any kind of project. We don't take a cut from Pros' rates either. What we do is set a markup on top of the rates set by Pros.
There should be no need for calculation on your part, as the rates you set for yourself on the Rates and Preferences page reflect the exact amount you will be getting for each project based on the number of words provided. That only differs for Speedies, as you may choose to receive between 90%~100%, or 80%~90%, or 70%~80%, etc. of the rates you established for yourself for those kinds of projects to make sure you are taken into account for different ranges of Speedies.
I invite you to read this article that details our markup process as much as possible. This article is also very interesting as it provides visual representation.
Other related articles that might be helpful in understanding our system follow:
1. How are rewards calculated?
2. Why do reward prices change?
If you still have any doubts about this topic, let me know and I'll do my best to solve them!
Kind regards,
Marina Russo.
Ahhh so it is a bit of Semantics I see. It isn't a "Cut" and you are not taking 90%... but it is a "mark up" . That is like a politician saying they "cut" the budget when they actually didn't stop any spending. Rather they only spent 3% more than the normal 5%... so it was called a "cut"
If I set my rate at ... let us say $0.05 per word, that means I get $25.00 for a 500-word script. Nonunion market rate for 500 words (non broadcast) is about 200 bucks. But your site charges the client $168. (source is YOUR website) THAT is a 86% markup!! If I increase my rates there is ZERO chance the client will book me or anyone else that increases their rates to reflect THEIR worth because we will price ourselves out of competition. Please correct me if I am wrong... semantics aside.
Hi Timothy,
I understand where you're coming from, and partially agree that it is an issue of semantics.
When an agent takes "a cut" of a project, that amount is fixed and will result in varying and confusing compensation for the service provider based on each project.
In our case, since we ask each provider to set their own rates, the compensation they will receive is always clear and stable according to the values they have set for themselves. What varies is the price charged to the client, as we set our mark-up on top of the established rate and based on the project's characteristics.
As in our platform you do not set up your rates per word but rather per set of units, it makes it easier to scale and adjust your values for each set of units (5, 50, 500, 5000, and 50000 words).
Being familiar with our Pro's rates, I can tell you it is not uncommon to have frequently-booked Pros charging around $200 for 500 words. If their stats are good enough, that will balance out their rates when our system calculates their ranking for Speedies and Contests.
If you have many samples and they are all tagged accordingly, your profile will always be displayed to clients looking for direct Bookings. If you have good quality samples and fit the client's profile, a $200 rate for 500 words will not be impeditive for most of them to book you.
If you still have any doubts about our pricing and reward system, let me know!
Kind regards,
Marina Russo.
Hi Timothy,
Another voice actor here just to say that I think of it in a different way now, though initially I had a similar reaction to yours. It used to seem like Bunny Studio's markup was high, but when you consider the worldwide popularity of the platform and the exposure you get as talent, plus the fact that you can sit at home in your underwear if you want when you record, have no producer interrupting you during takes, don't need gas in the car to go to some other studio... it seems worth it to me. I've now begun to look at it as an hourly rate issue. So if I'm sitting here earning $70 or $80 per hour of work that I enjoy.... well, I'll do that work all day, no argument from me.
There is a lot of talent in the world, a lot of competition. Honestly, I feel blessed to be able to do this when others I know are working factory jobs for less than $20/hr.
I know, it's not what we used to expect a decade or two ago. It's not SAG/AFTRA rates. (Although you can set your rates there if you like.) But man, I'll do it any day because I love the work and the opportunity to be creative.
My opinion might not be popular among a lot of voice talent, but there it is.
Best regards for a great career,
Joe Brown
Hi Joe,
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your opinion with Timothy and the Community!
We're happy to have you with us and glad that our system works and makes sense to you, though it might not be what you were used to in prior experiences.
We'd also love to hear your suggestions or complaints if you have any!
Please feel free to contact us at any time at suppor@bunnystudio.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Marina Russo.
Hi Marina,
My only complaint right now is about the problem with PayPal. I did contact PayPal, but they say there's no problem on my end or theirs, and that the problem seems to be with Bunny Studio. But Bunny Studio says the problem is with Paypal, so.... here we are stuck in the middle. Just wish it could be resolved. The process was so seamless before this issue arose.
Otherwise, I'm happy with Bunny Studio. I think highly of many with whom I've interacted on the Bunny staff.
Best regards,
Joe Cullen Brown
Hi Joe,
Thank you for getting back to me!
We understand and share your frustration with the PayPal integration issue.
It's understandable that their response was that they couldn't find any problems on their side, as when you reach out to them individually they review your account and anything surrounding it. However, the issue is with the integration between our platform and PayPal.
Both our engineering team and theirs were able to identify that the cause of the problem is on their side, but they haven't offered us much support.
As soon as we realized we could not depend on their support, we started looking into workarounds and other integrations.
We're currently working on a new integration that will get PayPal transactions up and running again, but we don't yet have an ETA on its completion.
We assure you it is one of our top priorities and will be released as soon as possible!
In the meantime, you can complete this form whenever you need to make a withdrawal through PayPal and we'll manually process the transaction.
Best regards,
Marina Russo.