Feb. 21, 2011 - According to foreign media outlet The Verge, theSpotify is working through a new partnership with ElevenLabs to bring moreAudiobooks voiced by AIIntroducing its platform. On Thursday local time, Spotify announced that it would begin acceptingAudiobooks recorded through ElevenLabs' AI speech software, and claims to see the potential of digital voice narration in driving and expanding the audiobook market.
1AI understands that Spotify has previously allowed AI-dubbed audiobooks to go live, but with some limitations. Spotify's audiobook distribution platform, Findaway Voices, only accepts digital recordings from "select partners" and has previously partnered with Google Play Books, which requires each recording to be reviewed before it can be published. Findaway Voices currently only accepts digital recordings from "select partners," having previously partnered with Google Play Books, and requires each recording to be reviewed before it can be published.
ElevenLabs is one of the most recognizable AI voice providers on the market, and is expected to lead to a surge in the number of synthesized voice audiobooks on the Spotify platform.
Authors can use ElevenLabs with Voice your own audiobooks in 29 languagesand there are several synthesized voice options to choose from. The free version of the software is only available monthly 10-minute text-to-speech serviceFor more service, users can choose from several paid packages, but at least a $99 monthly Pro subscription is required to generate 500 minutes of voiceovers -- about the length of a regular audiobook.
While Spotify says it "strongly believes in the importance of human voiceovers," it argues that digital voices allow smaller authors toMore cost-effective production of audiobooksSpotify also said that all books voiced by AI will be tagged with metadata and the book description will explicitly tell the listener that "this audiobook was voiced by a digital voice".
