Audiobooks have surged into huge popularity as a preferred book format. The global audiobook market size is projected to hit USD 33,538 Million by 2030. Everyone, from voice artists to authors, publishers, and alike are eager to capitalize on this multi-billion-dollar industry. And tech companies are no exception.
Last year, Google Play Books announced that publishers could create, publish, and sell auto-narrated audiobooks on the store. The service is available in six countries, as of now, including Canada, the U.S., Spain, New Zealand, Australia, and U.K. Publishers should have the audit rights to titles narrated into audiobooks, and they’ll get 52% of the revenue generated by AI-narrated audiobooks.
In January this year, Apple quietly released some AI-narrated audiobooks in romance and fiction genres. Type “AI narration” in the Apple Books app, and you’ll find many audiobooks with a note “Narrated by Apple Books” and the name of the artificial narrator of the book.
The AI invasion of the audio narration industry is causing panic for voice artists, publishers, and alike. Is there truly something to panic about? Is AI the future of audiobooks? Could it replace human narrators?
Well, AI may not wipe human narrators out of the picture. As David Ciccarelli, CEO of Voices, says:
“Getting AI voices to not only sound human but connect with listeners isn’t so easy to do. Voicing is, after all, acting, and the art of it is difficult to replicate. What humans can do best that AI can’t is timing.”
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.