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Spotify latest company to offer AI narrated garbage
Audiobooks narrated by AI are all of the rage since they save publishers and authors time and money when creating low-quality garbage. The latest company to hop on the train is Spotify Audiobooks. Starting today, Spotify will begin accepting audiobooks from AI software company, ElevenLabs. Authors can use the ElevenLabs platform to narrate their audiobooks in 29 languages, with complete control over voice and intonation.
Spotify says "This was a highly requested feature from authors and publishers, and means that authors who use ElevenLabs to narrate their audiobooks can now distribute their content to Spotify and select other retailers via Findaway Voices, opening up access of their titles to millions of listeners and book fans."
In the past few years, AI audiobooks have flooded the market, on all major audiobook platforms. Audible unveiled “virtual voice.” Since the platform went live, over 40,000 AI-narrated titles have flooded Audible. This was just the beginning. Audible plans to get human narrators who will volunteer to create speech models that will be synthesized to develop audiobooks faster. Audible noted in a blog post that it invited them to participate in a beta trial of the program that allows them to monetize their voices to create audiobooks using “AI-generated speech technology.” However, introducing AI voices has also sparked concerns among human narrators. Many fear that the widespread use of AI in audiobook narration could reduce opportunities for human talent. After all, the efficiency and speed of AI production could entice publishers and authors to opt for AI narrators over their human counterparts.
Audible told Good e-Reader in a statement that " Professional narration has always been, and will remain, core to the Audible listening experience. However, as text-to-speech technology improves, we see a future in which human performances and text-to-speech generated content can coexist.”
Early this year, Apple announced it was moving into AI-narrated audio books, a move it said would make the “creation of audio books more accessible to all,” notably independent authors and small publishers. In 2022 Google Audiobooks unveiled their own AI tools for publishers and authors to spam out audiobooks. Google Judy Chang, group product manager for Google Play Books pointed to some of the reasons behind the drive to offer auto-narration capability. “For many publishers, audiobook production can be a major investment,” she said. “That’s why Google Play Books’ auto-narrated audiobooks are designed to help publishers create high-quality audiobooks easily and affordably. Publishers can also assess audiobook demand for their titles before making an investment in human narration.”
I think that when compared to a human recording, AI audiobooks lacks in emotional connectivity.