Speech models fail in ways that are invisible in text. They mishear accents, collapse overlapping speakers, miss the difference between a question and a flat statement, and lose meaning that lives entirely in how something was said. Fixing that requires people listening carefully.
What the listings actually pay
Audio annotation covers a wider range than most people expect. Transcription with speaker labels, marking emotion and intent, phonetic annotation, identifying non-speech sound events, and music tagging are all distinct kinds of work with different rates.
| # | Role | Advertised rate | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Street Performing Musician | $100 to $300 an hour | micro1 |
| 2 | Voice Actor: CX Agent Voice Cloning (African American) | $50 to $150 an hour | Mercor |
| 3 | Audio Expert | $50 to $100 an hour | micro1 |
| 4 | Audio Tutor (Full Time) | $45 to $100 an hour | Mercor |
| 5 | Chess Expert (1800+ ELO), Game Reconstruction & Transcript Correction | $90 to $90 an hour | Mercor |
| 6 | Audio and Video Technicians | $50 to $90 an hour | Mercor |
| 7 | Sound / Audio Editor | $40 to $90 an hour | Mercor |
| 8 | Music & Lyrics Expert - Norwegian | $42 to $78 an hour | Mercor |
| 9 | Voice Recorder (German + English) | $30 to $65 an hour | micro1 |
| 10 | Music Production Expert - Japanese | $35 to $62 an hour | Mercor |
Source: 103 live listings on this board that publish a rate, read directly from each posting on 2026-09-14. Listings without a published rate are excluded rather than estimated.
What moves your rate
Across 103 live audio listings on our board that publish a rate, the median top-of-range is $40 an hour, reaching $300. The two things that move you up that range are language coverage, particularly less common languages and regional accents, and formal training in linguistics or phonetics.
How to apply
Every role above links to its own page with the full requirements and a direct application link. Applications are completed on the hiring platform and typically take a few minutes, with a short skills assessment in place of an interview.
Two things are worth doing before you apply. Check whether the role accepts applicants from your country using the eligibility checker, and run the advertised rate through the take-home calculator, because this is contract work and the headline rate is before self-employment tax.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need special equipment?
Decent headphones and a quiet environment, which is more important than it sounds. Accuracy on difficult audio is what you are being paid for.
What does audio annotation pay?
Across 103 live audio listings publishing a rate, the median top-of-range is $40 an hour, with the highest at $300. Rates vary sharply by language and specialism.
Is this just transcription?
Transcription is one part. The work also covers speaker separation, emotion and intent labelling, phonetic annotation and sound event identification.
Which languages pay most?
Generally those with the fewest qualified annotators relative to demand. Widely spoken languages have more competition and lower rates.
Does a linguistics background help?
Considerably, particularly for phonetic annotation, which is specialist work with a much smaller pool of people who can do it.
See every live role
The full board updates several times a week, with the advertised rate on each listing and closed roles removed.