Spotify adds audiobooks narrated by artificial intelligence for its listeners.

Spotify has taken an important step by announcing that it will start accepting audiobooks narrated by artificial voices developed by ElevenLabs. This measure aims to significantly increase the supply of audiobooks available on the platform. According to the company, digital voice narration has been one of the most requested features by authors.

Writers looking to create high-quality audiobooks at a low cost will find ElevenLabs' narration an interesting option. This platform allows authors to narrate their works in 29 languages, giving them complete control over the voice and intonation. To publish a digitally narrated audiobook on Spotify, authors must first upload their material to ElevenLabs, where the artificial intelligence will generate the corresponding narration. It is important to mention that, unless it is very short content, one of ElevenLabs' subscriptions will need to be purchased, which range from $22 per month for the Creator level to $1,320 for the Business level.

According to Speechify, another competitor in the AI voice space, an average-length audiobook takes about 10 hours to produce. Once the AI completes the narration, authors can download the resulting file package and upload it to Findaway Voices, Spotify's audiobook distribution service. This submission will be evaluated for accuracy before being published. Spotify will ensure that its AI-narrated works are clearly labeled, allowing readers to easily identify them.

It remains to be seen whether established authors will adopt this new service, as many are cautious about using their works to train AI systems. John Scalzi, an award-winning author, has included a clause in his contracts that requires the exclusive use of human narrators for his books.