pricing for transcription?
Thread poster: Kevin Schlottmann
Kevin Schlottmann
Kevin Schlottmann  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:47
German to English
Oct 16, 2002

I am in urgent need of a bit of advice:



How much does one normally charge for transcription? It would be the creation of a text from a videotape, and it is clearly understandable.



I am looking for a ballpark figure, for German. I understand that it is usually by the hour, but I need a range.



Thanks in advance!



Kevin Schlottmann


 
Henry Hinds
Henry Hinds  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 15:47
English to Spanish
+ ...
In memoriam
A Question Oct 17, 2002

This is a question often asked but seldom can a hard answer be given on audio material, since the factors vary so much, mainly in the technical quality of the recording and the amount of speech or dialog, its uniformity and whether you have problems with several people talking at once, etc.



What you probably have is professional recording quality and scripted narrative, the ideal, but the amount of total words could vary a lot, and that is what determines your price.
<
... See more
This is a question often asked but seldom can a hard answer be given on audio material, since the factors vary so much, mainly in the technical quality of the recording and the amount of speech or dialog, its uniformity and whether you have problems with several people talking at once, etc.



What you probably have is professional recording quality and scripted narrative, the ideal, but the amount of total words could vary a lot, and that is what determines your price.



You can quote your client an hourly rate if he can live with that. Otherwise you can sample the video and see if you can determine a ballpark figure how many minutes of your time it will take for one minute of the video, then multiply and give a quote for the job. That may take a bit of time too; just add it in.



I\'ve done that before (transcription and translation both). Once with an entire video of a conference I just took notes on it and then transcribed the notes in two languages; the presentations were also in one language or the other. The product was a summary in that case.



I ended up charging about 3 days worth, 1 1/2 for the note-taking then 1 1/2 for preparing the notes in two languages for the final product, and that worked fine.



So you just find a way to express the job accurately in terms of time without taking too much time doing it. Once you have that on hand, it\'s a cinch that you know what your time is worth. You just multiply.



But be assured that there is not and cannot ever be a hard and fast rule, such work is just too variable.



Collapse


 
Arthur Borges
Arthur Borges
China
Local time: 05:47
English
+ ...
I'd ask 30 euros per hour and let it slip to 20 if I've nothing else to do Oct 17, 2002

And I only commit to firm deadlines down to 25 euros.

Do not let yourself be cornered into giving any sort of lump sum estimate either. There\'s alot of time-consumng pause/rewind/replay involved


 
Stephen Franke
Stephen Franke
United States
Local time: 14:47
English to Arabic
+ ...
For transcribing & translating an audiotape= USD$ 50.00 Oct 17, 2002

For transcribing & translating an audiotape, charge USD $50.00 per minute of audiotaped portion, since you\'ll normally be playing and re-playing and re-playing and re-playing the tape... needed to insure complete and as accurate-as-was-audible processing of the contents.



Compared to prevailing rates in the film industry for audio engineering, even that rate cited above is lower than scale rate.



HTH.



Good luck.



R
... See more
For transcribing & translating an audiotape, charge USD $50.00 per minute of audiotaped portion, since you\'ll normally be playing and re-playing and re-playing and re-playing the tape... needed to insure complete and as accurate-as-was-audible processing of the contents.



Compared to prevailing rates in the film industry for audio engineering, even that rate cited above is lower than scale rate.



HTH.



Good luck.



Regards,



Stephen H. Franke

(English Arabic,

Kurdish, and Farsi)

Collapse


 
Kevin Schlottmann
Kevin Schlottmann  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:47
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you all! Oct 17, 2002




Thanks for your typically pithy, insightful and just plain useful replies.


 
Yvonne Krystman-Meyers
Yvonne Krystman-Meyers
United States
Local time: 17:47
English to Polish
+ ...
How much time it takes to do transcript and translation of 70 min.movie? Nov 18, 2002

I just finished work like that, and it took me more then 20 hr... I never had done this before, and now I question myself: am I too slow?

and I\'m affraid to acctually invoice the client for 20 hrs. as it would be quite high, and I\'m affraid to loose that client?

Please, please any suggestions would be great!


 
Khulan S.
Khulan S.  Identity Verified
Mongolia
Local time: 05:47
Member (2003)
English to Mongolian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
To Yvonne's question Nov 23, 2002

I just did transcript and translation of 60 min. documentary film several days ago and it took me about 13 hours. But I think I did this work a bit too fast. I hope this answers your question. However I must mention that the film was not very technical and therefore easy to translate. So, I don\'t think that you are slow or anything like that because it depends on many things. Cheers,

 
Belen San Antonio
Belen San Antonio  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 22:47
English to Spanish
+ ...
Transcription for somebody in Canada Mar 17, 2003

I have read with interest all of your comments regarding transcription fees, and by the way, apologies for having posted my question about fees as a terminology question, but I had not used the forums before, and was not really aware of their potential.



My problem is the following: Siento hacer la pregunta aqui, pero no sabia donde ponerla.



I have had an offer to do transcription for someone in Canada. In the past I have charged £20/hour, but not having
... See more
I have read with interest all of your comments regarding transcription fees, and by the way, apologies for having posted my question about fees as a terminology question, but I had not used the forums before, and was not really aware of their potential.



My problem is the following: Siento hacer la pregunta aqui, pero no sabia donde ponerla.



I have had an offer to do transcription for someone in Canada. In the past I have charged £20/hour, but not having worked for Canada before, I don\'t know if I am going to shock this person to his very core. Can someone tell me what sort of rates are ok for Canada? Thank you all.
[addsig]
Collapse


 
Julia Mojik
Julia Mojik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 22:47
Member (2007)
English to German
+ ...
50.00 $ per minute? Jan 16, 2008

Hi Stephen,
I found your entry in this forum. I would like to know, did you mean 50.00$ per minute or is this a typo?

And what do you mean by "portion"?

I would be very happy, if you'd reply, since I have this question as well.

Kind regards

Julia


English- German - English
French-German





Stephen Franke wrote:

For transcribing & translating an audiotape, charge USD $50.00 per minute of audiotaped portion, since you\'ll normally be playing and re-playing and re-playing and re-playing the tape... needed to insure complete and as accurate-as-was-audible processing of the contents.



Compared to prevailing rates in the film industry for audio engineering, even that rate cited above is lower than scale rate.



HTH.



Good luck.



Regards,



Stephen H. Franke

(English Arabic,

Kurdish, and Farsi)



cmahjoubi
 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

pricing for transcription?







TM-Town
Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business

Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.

More info »
Protemos translation business management system
Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!

The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.

More info »