What should a UK voice actor contract include?

A UK voice actor contract should name the parties, the job, the deliverables, usage windows, exclusivity, fees and VAT, approval rounds, who holds the performers' rights and the recording copyright, a liability cap, and what happens if a booked session is unused. Sign it before the session.

This page is England and Wales first. Performers' rights and copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 are UK-wide. Off-payroll working (IR35) is a UK tax rule and only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Typical studio, brand and agency bookings are business-to-business. Do not paste consumer cooling-off onto a company brief.

Contracts.io has no voice-actor template. Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Those papers already have fee, usage, cancellation and IP slots. Repeat bookings can hang a statement of work under standing terms, or sit on a retainer. A podcast host-read or branded ad can sit next to an influencer agreement. A music-adjacent session can sit next to a music producer agreement. A filmed ADR day can sit next to a videography contract. Company-to-company contractor work can start from an independent contractor agreement. If you are sharing an unreleased script or product before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it. Contracts for voice actors is the shorter audience page. What should a UK influencer contract include? is the host-read sibling. What should a UK music producer contract include? is the session sibling.

Twelve blocks finish this paper:

The counts, windows and 50% split are examples of how to write the list, not prices we charge. Write the numbers you actually use.

Sign before the session. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.

Name the job, the length, the accents or languages, the files, and whether it is a studio session or a home-studio record. “Some VO” is not a list. “One 30-second UK TV commercial, two named accents, finished 24-bit WAV, no raw takes, remote session on Friday 10:00 UK” is a list. Extra spots, a second language, pickups beyond the agreed rounds and a buyout into a new territory are a change of scope, quoted first.

Write seven things:

• Job. Commercial, explainer or corporate, e-learning, IVR or phone system, audiobook, character or animation, game VO, podcast host-read or ad, promo or trailer. Direction and audience matter. A supermarket TV spot is not an internal explainer.
• Length. Seconds, minutes, or a word count. A 30-second cut-down is not a 90-second explainer.
• Accents and languages. Named accents. Named languages. A second language is a new fee.
• Files. Finished WAV or MP3, sample rate, whether raw takes and session files are included. Raw is not finished.
• Session. Studio with an engineer, or remote home studio. Who supplies the booth, the connection, and the backup.
• What is out of scope. A second SKU, a live attend, ADR on picture, a buyout into the US, AI training.
• Direction. Who directs, whether the client attends, how notes arrive.

Example

The Talent will deliver the Performance in SchedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary 1, in the files and on the date in that Schedule. Extra spots, a second language, pickups beyond the agreed rounds, a live attend and AI training are out of scope and will be quoted first. The Client warrants the script and claims it supplies.

In Plain English: they get the named files from the named session. A new spot is a new fee. They stand behind the script. You do not throw in a US buyout as a courtesy.

A change-control line stops a “quick extra line” becoming unpaid work. Scope creep and change control is the longer page.

Write the fee, whether VAT is extra, when invoices go out, and the usage window the fee buys. VAT is added if you are VAT-registered; that is practice, not a rate we invent. A session fee is not a buyout. Residuals are extra sums when the spot runs again — practice, not a statute. For a UK business client, late commercial payment carries statutory interest.

Payment terms should name:

• the fee and the basis — a session fee, a project fee, or a named hour;
• whether VAT is extra;
• when invoices go out — on signature, on delivery, or in named stages;
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary;
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, including a right not to release files;
• that any licence or assignment of the performers' rights passes only on full payment.

Usage is the commercial heart of a voice-over deal. Write media, territory and term. “In perpetuity, all media, worldwide” is a buyout heading, not a licence. A 12-month UK TV and VOD window is a licence. Paid amplification, a second territory and a theatrical trailer are extra uses. Price them.

A deposit before booked sessions are reserved is a common shape, not a statutory rate. A 50% invoice on signature and 50% on delivery is an example of how to split a project fee, not a price we charge. There is no default UK right to keep a deposit; both sides have to agree it. See Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?.

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets statutory interest. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. We do not print the current base rate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest.

Example

The fee is the figure in Schedule 1. VAT is charged in addition where the Talent is VAT-registered. 50% is due on signature and reserves the session. The balance is due within 14 days of delivery of the files. The Talent may withhold the files while any undisputed invoice is more than 7 days overdue. Any licence or assignment of the Talent’s performers' property rights passes only on payment in full. Statutory interest and compensation on late commercial payment apply where the 1998 Act applies.

In Plain English: they pay to reserve the diary. They have two weeks after delivery for the rest. After a week late, you hold the files. They do not get unpaid usage. A business client can owe the statutory interest and the fixed recovery sum.

The chase sequence is Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Write the notice both sides use to cancel a booked session, what unused hours cost, and the kill feekill feeA kill fee is a payment due to a creator or supplier when a client cancels a project before it is finished.More in the glossary if they stop a started job. There is no default UK right to keep a depositdepositA deposit is money paid up front, before the main work or the final invoice.More in the glossary or charge unused hours; both sides have to agree the sums. Typical studio and brand bookings are B2B. For a consumer, a 14-day right can apply, and the term must be fair.

A common freelance shape — not a statutory rule — is:

• a deposit to reserve named sessions;
• short-notice cancellation of reserved sessions charged in full or in part;
• a kill fee if they stop after work has started, covering work done plus a named unused-time charge;
• postponement is not a free rewrite of the diary;
• talent cancellation: write the notice you give, and how a substitute or a moved date works.

Force majeureforce majeureForce majeure is a clause that pauses a party’s duties when something outside both sides’ control stops the work.More in the glossary sits at a high level. If illness, a studio outage or an event neither side could reasonably control stops a session, write who can postpone, whether the date moves, and that unused booked hours still follow the kill-fee line. FrustrationfrustrationFrustration discharges a contract when an unforeseen event makes performance impossible or something radically different from what was agreed. In England and Wales the test is Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham UDC [1956] AC 696. Taylor v Caldwell (1863) 3 B & S 826 is the classic illustration: a music hall burned down, so the hire could not go ahead.More in the glossary under the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 is a last-resort statute when performance becomes impossible. Do not treat a change of script as frustration. See force majeure and frustration.

For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. A genuine pre-estimate of lost booked time is the shape that holds; a figure designed to punish is the shape that fails. See Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi. We do not invent a holding beyond that.

Example

A deposit of the sum in Schedule 1 reserves the sessions in that Schedule. If the Client cancels reserved sessions on less than 48 hours’ notice, those sessions are charged. If the Client ends the job after work has started, the Talent is due the work done at the agreed rate plus the unused-time charge in Schedule 1. A postponement agreed in writing moves the dates; it does not waive the unused-time charge unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: unused booked hours are charged if you wrote that. Starting the session and then stopping still costs them the work done and the named kill fee. Moving the date is a written change, not a free pass.

The longer consumer-versus-business page is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. Cancellation and kill fee is the clause page.

You hold the performers' rights unless you assign them. Copyright in the sound recording sits with the producer. Those are two piles. Paying the fee moves neither of them. An assignment of the performer's property rights is not effective unless it is in writing, signed.

CDPA 1988 s.180 confers rights on a performer by requiring consent to the exploitation of the performance. A performance includes a dramatic or musical performance and a reading or recitation of a literary work, given live by one or more individuals. A studio session and a home-studio record of a live take sit in that pile. The rights in Part II are independent of any copyright in the script, or in any film or sound recording of the performance.

CDPA 1988 s.182 says a performer's rights are infringed by a person who, without consent, records the whole or a substantial part of a qualifying performance from the live performance. Section 182A says the same for making a copy of a recording of that performance — the reproduction right. A client who records the session, then copies the take into an edit, needs your consent for both steps. The contract is that consent, written.

Copyright in the recording is a different pile. CDPA 1988 s.9(2)(aa) says the author of a sound recording is the producer. Section 178 says the producer is the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the making of the recording are undertaken. Combined with s.11, that producer is the first owner of copyright in the recording unless the employee exception applies. A freelance voice actor is not, by showing up, the producer. The studio, the brand or the production house that booked the booth usually is. If you record at home on your own kit, write who is making the arrangements — otherwise a later argument starts about who owns the file.

The script is a third pile. Literary copyright sits with the writer under s.11 unless they assigned it. Do not promise you can assign a script you did not write. See intellectual property assignment.

Keep four piles:

• The performance. Your performers' property rights. Licensed or assigned on full payment.
• The recording. Copyright usually with the producer.
• Unused takes. Not included unless the paper says so.
• Libraries. Your demo, a character you already use, a catchphrase from another job. Licensed for this job as pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary, not assigned.

A US “work for hirework for hireWork for hire is a phrase, common on US-style papers, meaning the client is treated as the author and owner of the work from the start.More in the glossary” heading does not do that work in England and Wales. See work for hire. Write licence or assignment in English words.

Example

Performers' property rights in the Performance remain with the Talent. On receipt of full payment the Client is granted the licence in Schedule 1 to use the Performance for the media, territory and duration named in that Schedule. Until then the Client has no licence to copy, issue, rent or make the Performance available. Assignment of the Talent’s performers' property rights is not included unless Schedule 1 says so. Copyright in the sound recording sits with the producer as first owner under CDPA 1988 ss.9(2)(aa) and 11 unless Schedule 1 says otherwise. Unused takes and pre-existing materials stay with the Talent.

In Plain English: they may use the named take as the schedule says, once they have paid. They do not own your performers' rights. They usually own the recording copyright because they produced it. A buyout is extra. Your unused takes stay yours.

If they publish unpaid work, see Client using your work without paying.

LicencelicenceA licence is permission to use work in an agreed way, without taking ownership away from the person who made it.More in the glossary the named use unless they must own the rights. An assignment is a buyout: writing, signed, on full payment. A licence is permission. Most commercials need a licence of named media, territory and term — not a transfer of the performers' property rights. A new window, a new territory and AI training are a separate use. Price them. Performer moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary stay with you unless you waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary them in writing, signed.

An exclusive licence is a further step. CDPA 1988 s.92 is the copyright exclusive-licence rule. For performers' property rights, write exclusivity of use in English words: named media, named window, and that you will not license the same take to anyone else for that window. Do not treat a heading as an assignment.

Moral rights for performers sit next to the economic rights. The performer of a qualifying performance has the right to be identified (s.205C) and the right not to have the performance subjected to distortion, mutilation or other modification that is prejudicial to their reputation (s.205F). Those rights may be waived by an instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right (s.205J). See moral rights and usage rights and credit. A credit line is practice; a waiver is a signed paper, not a heading. Pitch-shifting a take into a claim you would not stand behind is the derogatory-treatment conversation. Author moral rights under ss.77 and 80 are a different pile — they sit with the author of a literary or artistic work, and the director of a film, not with the performer of a voice-over.

Example

On full payment the Client is granted a non-exclusive licence to use the Performance in the media, territory and duration in Schedule 1. A residual, a second territory, paid amplification and AI training are not included unless Schedule 1 names them and the extra fee. Assignment of the Talent’s performers' property rights is not included. The Talent does not waive performer moral rights unless Schedule 1 attaches a signed waiver.

In Plain English: they can run the named take in the named window once they have paid. Running it as a new campaign, in a new country, or through a voice model, is extra. They cannot sell the performers' rights on. A credit stays unless you signed it away.

Contracts for music producers and Contracts for influencers are the session and host-read siblings for the same licence-versus-assignment split.

Name the category, the rival brands if you can, the media, and the window. Price it. An exclusivity clauseexclusivity clauseAn exclusivity clause stops one side working with other people in a named market, for a named time. In England and Wales a lock-out has to be for a fixed period: Walford v Miles [1992] 2 AC 128 is why an agreement to negotiate exclusively with no end date fails.More in the glossary that bans every voice-over in every category forever is the shape that fails in practice. Exclusivity is not an assignment of performers' rights and it is not a non-competenon-competeA non-compete is a promise not to do similar work for a competitor, or in a named market, for a period after the job.More in the glossary by another name unless you wrote it that way.

A working exclusivity line answers five things:

• Category. Supermarkets, not “retail and anything adjacent”.
• Names. Named rivals where you can. “Direct competitors” without names is how a later argument starts.
• What is banned. Paid commercials, explainer reads, hold-music — write which. Your existing demo is a different pile.
• Media. The media in the deal, or every channel you voice.
• Window. During the campaign and a named period after. Thirty or ninety days after the last use is a common freelance shape, not a statutory period.

A right of first refusalright of first refusalA right of first refusal gives one party the chance to match a third-party offer before the other side can take it. It is not exclusivity and not a right of first offer. Write the trigger, the terms that must be shared, the days to match, and whether silence is a waiver. Keep the window short.More in the glossary is a narrower tool: they get a chance to match another brand in that category before you take it. A most favoured nationmost favoured nationA most favoured nation clause says the supplier will not give another customer a better price or term without offering the same to this client. It is a pricing promise, not exclusivity. Draft the comparison: same scope, same volume, same period. An open-ended MFN across every client and every product is hard to police and easy to breach.More in the glossary line is a price promise, not exclusivity. Do not mix the three in one sentence.

An exclusivity clause that stops you working for anyone else can look like employment when you book through a personal company into a studio, agency or brand. If they want a wide exclusive, price it and keep it narrow. See IR35 contract clauses checklist.

Example

During the Term and for 30 days after the last permitted use, the Talent shall not perform paid voice-over in the category and for the named brands in Schedule 1, in the media in that Schedule. The Talent’s existing demo and unpaid showreel use are not included. This clause is not an assignment of performers' rights and does not stop the Talent working in other categories.

In Plain English: for the named window you do not take paid VO for the named rivals in that category. You can still voice other categories. They did not buy your rights by buying exclusivity.

Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling when an agency sits between the brand and you.

Write how many pickup or revision rounds they get, how direction is given, who attends the session, and what silence means. One packed set of notes is a round. A drip of Slack comments is not. Silence after the window is usually treated as approval, so delivery is not blocked by a late producer. A late script does not squeeze your session unless the paper says so.

Revisions and acceptance should name:

• What a round is. Consolidated comments on the then-current take, against the agreed script. Not a new script.
• How many. One inclusive pickup round is a common freelance shape. Write the number. See revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary.
• The window. Three working days is a common shape, not a statutory period.
• What silence means. If they do not reply in the window, you may treat the take as approved.
• What is new work. A new script, a new character, a new accent, or a request to re-record the session.
• Attendance. Who may sit in, remotely or in the booth, and whether that is included.

If the client redlinesredlineA redline is a proposed edit on a draft contract — words added, struck out or rewritten — not a signed change.More in the glossary “silence is approval” out of the paper, that is a price and timeline issue, not a courtesy. See Your client redlined your contract.

Example

The fee includes one round of pickups against the agreed script. Comments must be consolidated and sent within three working days of the files. If the Client does not reply in that window, the Talent may treat the take as approved. A new script, a new character, a new accent or a re-record of the session is new work and will be quoted first.

In Plain English: they get one pass on the take you both agreed. If they go quiet, you are done. A new script is a new quote.

Write whether they may use the recording to train a model or to synthesise a voice that sounds like you. Silence is how a later argument starts. There is no UK statute we cite that names “voice cloning”. The practical hooks are the licence window, the performers' property rights, and a line that says no.

A working AI line answers four things:

• Training. May they use the take, unused takes or your demo to train a model? Yes or no.
• Synthesis. May they generate new lines in your voice without a further session? Yes or no.
• Window. If yes, for which job, which media, which term. A perpetual clone is a buyout of a different kind. Price it.
• Credit and control. Whether synthetic lines must be labelled, and whether you may refuse a use that would prejudice your reputation — the performer moral-rights conversation under s.205F.

Do not treat a usage buyout as consent to train. A 12-month UK TV licence is permission to run the named take. It is not permission to build a voice model. If they want a clone for IVR prompts after the campaign, that is a new grant. Write it or exclude it.

This is practice, not a statute we invent. We do not invent an AI-specific obligation beyond the performers' rights, the licence, and the warranties split: you warrant the performance is yours; they warrant they will not use it outside the schedule.

Example

The Client shall not use the Performance, unused takes or the Talent’s demo to train a machine-learning model, or to synthesise a voice that imitates the Talent, unless Schedule 1 names that use and the extra fee. A licence or assignment of named media does not include that use.

In Plain English: they bought the take, not a copy of your voice. If they want a model, they pay for that grant, in writing.

Unreleased scripts, products, launch dates and embargoed assets stay private until the go-live window. Write the usual limits: a court order, or what the client has already made public. A confidentialityconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary clause is not an NDANDAAn NDA is a contract in which one or both parties agree to keep shared information confidential.More in the glossary by itself. If you are opening an unreleased script before the deal is signed, put a mutual NDA next to it.

Confidentiality on the voice-over agreement should name:

• the script, the product, the launch date, unreleased assets, and the fact of the campaign until go-live;
• how long the duty lasts after delivery — the life of the remaining sensitivity, not “forever” as a slogan;
• the usual limits: a court order, information already public, or information you already held;
• whether you may name the client in a showreel. Many unreleased launches say no until the embargo lifts. See publicity and portfolio use.

An embargo is a go-live rule, not a separate statute. Write the date and time zone the spot may air, and that a leak before that time is a breach. Do not post a Story of the script on the music stand.

A one-way NDAone-way NDAA one-way NDA is a confidentiality agreement where only one side discloses information and only the other side is bound to keep it private.More in the glossary the studio sends before they will share the script is common. Read it. A clause that assigns performers' rights, or that bans you from working for anyone in their sector, is not an NDA. See NDA for UK freelancers and the NDA generator.

Example

The Talent will keep the script, Product, launch date, unreleased assets and the fact of this campaign confidential until the go-live window in Schedule 1, and will not disclose them except where required by law or a court order, or where the information is already public other than through the Talent’s breach. Showreel use of the Client’s name is not included until that window, unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: the script stays in the job until the named go-live. You do not post it early. You do not put their name on your reel until they said you could.

NDAs explained is the longer NDA page.

Your own invoices, emails and demo reel are typically data you control. UK GDPR Article 28 applies when a booking collects other people's data for the client — a cast list you process on their instructions, or identity documents you collect for them. A one-line “you will comply with data protection law” is not that contract.

The split is:

• Controller. You decide why you hold your own invoices, your own CRM and the demo you publish.
• Processor. You collect another performer's details for their cast, or you store identity documents they asked you to take. They decide the purpose; you process on their instructions.
• Article 28. Processing by a processor must be governed by a contract that is binding and that sets out the subject-matter, duration, nature and purpose, the type of personal data and categories of data subjects, and the processor terms in Article 28(3)(a)–(h). See data protection.

Typical booking data:

Do not export their cast list onto a personal laptop “to make a spreadsheet” unless the paper says so. On ending, you stop processing and return or delete what the schedule requires.

This is high-level B2B framing. We do not invent a further UK GDPR obligation beyond Article 28 and the data protection clause.

Example

Where the Talent processes personal data for the Client — including identity documents and other performers' details on a session the Talent runs for the Client — that processing is governed by the processor terms in Schedule 2. The Client is the controller. The Talent will not process those data except on the Client’s documented instructions. The Talent’s own invoices and demo remain the Talent’s data.

In Plain English: their cast list is their data. Your own reel stays yours. If you collect names for them, write the processor paper, not a vibe.

Usually no. A studio, brand, agency or production house buying a session in the course of business is not a consumer. Do not paste the 14-day cooling-off onto a company brief. Consumer rights only bite when the counterpartycounterpartyThe counterparty is the other side of the contract — the person or company you are making the deal with.More in the glossary is a consumer — for example a private individual buying a birthday message wholly or mainly outside their trade.

Who the other side is splits the page:

• A business client (a company, or a person buying in the course of business). No statutory 14-day cooling-off under the 2013 Regulations. An agreed cancellation charge must not be a penalty. The 1998 Act can apply to late payment.
• A consumer (an individual buying a personal message wholly or mainly outside their trade). Distance and off-premises contracts carry the 14-day right. The term must be fair.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give that right (regulation 29). For a service contract the period ends at the end of 14 days after the day the contract is entered into (regulation 30). Booking by email or a website, without both of you in the same place, is a distance contract.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62 says an unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer. Section 49 says a trader supplying a service must do so with reasonable care and skill. Neither section turns a company session into a consumer contract.

Most commercial, explainer, game, IVR and audiobook bookings on this page are the left-hand column. Write the paper that way.

Example

If the Client is a consumer and this agreement was made at a distance or off-premises, the Client may cancel in the cancellation period without giving a reason. For the Services that period ends at the end of 14 days after the day this agreement is entered into. This clause does not apply where the Client is buying in the course of a business.

In Plain English: an individual who booked a birthday message online has two weeks to walk away. A company buying a product launch does not get that statutory cooling-off.

Cap liability at a multiple of the fees. In England and Wales you cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence. Do not guarantee a spot will convert, a ranking, or that a platform will keep the file up. See the longer liability guide.

Limitation of liability on a voice-over job usually does four things:

• caps the talent’s total liability at the fees paid for that job, or a named multiple;
• excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence from that cap — Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 s.2 does not let you exclude it;
• says other negligence liability can be limited only so far as the term is reasonable;
• leaves the implied termimplied termsImplied terms are obligations the law reads into a contract even when the parties did not write them down. In England and Wales they come from statute — for business services, reasonable care and skill under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 — or from common law where a term is necessary for business efficacy.More in the glossary that a service is performed with reasonable care and skill — Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 for B2B, Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.49 for a consumer.

We do not invent a case holding that a particular cap is reasonable. Reasonableness is a fact-specific test. A cap at the fees, with the UCTA floor left in, is the common freelance shape.

A liability cap is not an indemnityindemnityAn indemnity is a promise to cover another party's losses arising from a particular event or claim.More in the glossary. Do not sign an unlimited indemnity for “any loss arising from the spot” on a product-liability brief without pricing that risk. The client warrants its script and claims; you warrant the performance is yours and that you will carry out the session with reasonable care and skill. How a freelancer caps liability is the longer page.

Example

The Talent’s total liability under this agreement is capped at the fees paid for the Performance. Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. The Talent does not warrant a commercial result, a ranking, or that a platform will keep the files available.

In Plain English: if the job goes wrong, they can come for the fee, not for an open-ended loss. You still owe care and skill. You cannot write out death or injury caused by negligence. You did not promise the spot would sell the product.

Contracts for copywriters is the sibling page when the work is claims in copy rather than a voiced take.

IR35 only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. It does not apply to a private individual buying a birthday message. No label decides the tax. From 6 April 2021, public authorities and medium or large clients must give a status determination statement. Small private-sector clients leave that decision with your company.

Write the working practices, then work that way:

• you decide how the performance is made;
• you can send a qualified substitute, and you have actually used one or can;
• there is no obligation on them to offer further sessions, and none on you to accept them;
• you use your own kit and, for remote work, your own booth;
• you are not on their org chart, in their Slack, or in their holiday rota.

A heading that says “independent contractor” does not take you outside IR35. Chapter 10 of ITEPA 2003 (ss.61K, 61N and 61NA) puts the status determination on the public-authority or medium or large client with a UK connection. Chapter 8 and s.60A leave small private-sector clients on the older rules. See IR35 contract clauses checklist and sole trader vs limited companysole trader vs limited companyA sole trader contracts in a personal name and is personally liable. A limited company is a separate legal person; the company is on the hook, not the director, unless there is a guarantee. Switching from one to the other is a novation, not a letterhead change. IR35 / off-payroll rules can still apply to a personal service company.More in the glossary.

An exclusivity clause that stops you working for anyone else can look like employment. If they want exclusivity in a sector, price it and keep it narrow.

Most direct-to-studio sessions never reach this heading. Agency-to-talent jobs into a medium or large end-client still should, because the end client is often an organisation.

Example

The Talent is an independent contractor. The Talent decides how the Performance is produced, may send a qualified substitute, and is not obliged to accept further sessions. Nothing in this agreement makes the Talent an employee, worker or agent of the Client. The parties will work in line with any status determination statement the Client is required to give.

In Plain English: the tax follows how you actually work. A label on page one does not decide it. A large company client has to give you their determination.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared voice-over agreement, so the job, the usage window and the AI line are the version you both signed. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. A podcast host-read can sit next to an influencer agreement. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator. If you are sharing an unreleased script before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it, or use the NDA generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the licence or IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary, the exclusivity clause, the kill fee and the AI line are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, then paid plans from £15 a month — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the session in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the booth.

Contracts for voice actors is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Contracts for influencers is the host-read sibling. Contracts for music producers is the session sibling. Contracts for videographers is the filmed sibling. Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling. Contracts for freelancers is the delivery sibling. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement is the shorter how-to. NDA for UK freelancers is the pitch-stage paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.