Unlike singers, do voice over artists and dubbing artists have any licensing rights?
Not really. The voice over artist and dubbing artist community is very unorganized and scattered. Only the premium voice over artist in India get licensing rights for their voice. If an artist gives his voice for any show in India, the broadcaster can use the voice any number of times. But it is not the same in other countries. Even the Copyright Act of India, 1952, guarantees copyright to any individual voice artist. Only in the advertising industry does the voice artist get royalty each time the voice is used, but in the case of dubbing, it is not only an one time payment to the dubbing artist. Internationally, a dubbing artist might do one film per year but he can sustain himself the entire year with the kind of royalty that he gets, based on the regulations and the kind of contract that he signs. Have you tried seeking licensing rights from broadcasters? For ads yes, but for promos they cannot and do not use the same voice for a TV ad and a radio ad, as per regulations. In ads, big
