Spotify makes it easy to publish audiobooks narrated by artificial intelligence.
Fortunately, it will be clearly labeled.
Spotify has announced a new collaboration with ElevenLabs to incorporate more audiobooks narrated by artificial intelligence into its platform. This initiative was revealed on Thursday, where the audio streaming company highlighted the potential of digital narration to expand the audiobook market.
It is worth mentioning that while Spotify already allowed audiobooks recorded by artificial intelligence, these were subject to various restrictions. Its audiobook distribution platform, Findaway Voices, only accepts digital recordings from "specific partners." Previously, this platform also collaborated with Google Play Books, and each recording must be reviewed before publication. With the incorporation of ElevenLabs, a well-known provider of synthetic voices, an increase in the availability of audiobooks narrated in this way is expected.
Authors will be able to use ElevenLabs' technology to narrate their works in 29 languages and choose from a wide range of synthetic voices. The free version of this software allows for up to 10 minutes of text-to-speech per month, while there are several premium plans that remove this limitation, with at least a Pro subscription of $99 per month required to generate up to 500 minutes of narration, which is approximately the average length of an audiobook.
Although Spotify continues to support human narration, the company believes that digital voices can make audiobook production more affordable for independent authors and facilitate the creation of audiobooks for older titles that might otherwise be overlooked. The company has also ensured that all AI-narrated audiobooks will carry a label in their metadata and will be clearly identified in the book descriptions with the phrase "this audiobook is narrated by a digital voice."
