Panel Video

Guide to Fair Pay in Audio: What Freelancers Need to Know in 2025

AIR is proud to introduce the 2025 Rate Guide, a long-awaited, essential resource designed to empower independent audio professionals with the latest, data-driven insights into fair pay. 
This presentation is recorded and made available for free. 
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Key Takeaways

  • Learn about critical updates to the guide including benchmarks for producers, sound designers, story editors, show runners, fact-checkers. 
  • What considerations you need to take in setting your freelance rate. 

About this panel

  • Thursday, March 6th, 2025
  • 11am - 12:15pm PT / 2pm - 3:15pm ET
  • 75 Mins
  • Free to all 
  • This panel is recorded and made available for all within a day of the presentation
AIR is proud to introduce the 2025 Rate Guide, a long-awaited, essential resource designed to empower independent audio professionals with the latest, data-driven insights into fair pay. This comprehensive guide responds to a dramatically transformed media landscape, offering freelancers the tools to advocate for their worth, negotiate confidently, and build sustainable careers.

Learn about why the updated rate guide matters more than ever, how to use and interpret the guide, and how to set your rate and our new roles and responsibilities section from the the researchers who collected and analyzed survey data from the audio industry. 

Who is this panel for?

Freelancers in the audio industry and organizations that hire freelancers, anybody who builds a budget for audio
Meet the rate guide committee

Will Coley

Will Coley is an audio documentary producer based in Harlem, NY. For many years, Will coordinated programs to support people held in immigration detention. For this work, Will received the Reebok Human Rights Award. To help refugees and immigrants share their stories, Will then created digital storytelling and narrative change projects for nonprofit organizations and philanthropic organizations. Since attending the Transom Story Workshop, Will has produced audio stories for NPR News, 99% Invisible, and the BBC World Service, among others. He has also been a producer at Condé Nast where he worked on The New Yorker Radio Hour and several podcasts for Vanity Fair. Will is a proud member of the Association of Independents in Radio.
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Meet the rate guide committee

Mia Lobel

Mia Lobel is a veteran audio producer, manager, and educator, and the former VP of Content and Production at Pushkin Industries where she oversaw all podcasts including Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History, A Slight Change of Plans with Maya Shankar, Michael Lewis’ Against the Rules, Broken Record, and many more. She has been making audio content since 2001 for public radio stations, non-profit organizations, museums, universities, and voice-activated services. She received a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. She has been an adjunct professor at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY since 2010.
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Meet the rate guide committee

Rob Byers

Rob is an audio engineer, production consultant, and trainer. At Vox Media he was the Director of Audio Engineering and was formerly the technical director for Criminal Productions. Prior to working at Vox he was the Director of Broadcast and Media Production at American Public Media. He also trained audio producers around the country with NPR Training and has written educational guides for producers of all experience levels. He has recorded a variety of musicians, from Lizzo and Brandi Carlile to Yo-Yo Ma and Denyce Graves, helped engineer NPR's coverage of Hurricane Katrina from the Gulf Coast, and coordinated live international broadcasts from Cuba and Greece. He has enjoyed a long relationship with the Association of Independents in Radio and currently serves on the board of directors. In 2021, Rob was awarded the inaugural Audio Engineering Society's President's Award for his work on loudness in music streaming and podcasts.
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Meet the Rate GuiDE COMMITTEE

Erin McGregor

As a Program Manager at the Association of Independents in Radio, Erin oversees mentorship and training on SoundPath, AIR's training platform for the audio industry. She's passionate about creating enriching opportunities for professional development for AIR’s membership and the community at large. She served as a judge for the 2025 48-hour Sonic Dash competition and leads AIR's initiative to update the 2025 Rate Guide. 

Erin holds a Master’s Degree in Social Justice & Equity Studies where she studied broadcast news interviews on the CBC. She currently resides in South Philadelphia, PA.
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