Audio books are on the rise, as evidenced by Spotify, which has made them a major area of development. Audible, the historic market leader, wants to maintain its lead and to achieve this, it is necessary to increase the content available… even if it means using synthetic voices.
Last year, Amazon announced that self-published American authors on the Kindle store will be able to generate an audio version using a new tool in beta — a synthetic voice created by artificial intelligence. Many authors have seized this opportunity: more than 40,000 audio books have appeared in recent months in the catalog of the specialized store owned by Amazon.
A new audience
These audio books are marked with a label that clearly announces the color: it is indeed a virtual voice. Author Hassan Osman explained that turning one of his ebooks into an audiobook took 52 minutes of work and processing. Many writing colleagues say they are delighted with this solution, which not only allows them to reach a new audience, but also saves hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in storytelling costs.
One of the concerns with this Amazon “AI mill” is that it is still impossible to sort audiobooks based on voice, human or AI (even if they are duly labeled AI). Audible users therefore find themselves with a tsunami of new features. An Audible spokesperson told Bloomberg that improvements will be made after the beta testing period.
Could these self-published authors have called on storytelling professionals? We can reasonably doubt this, given the cost of this type of service. AI voices aren’t as effective as human voices of course, but for both authors and listeners who know where their ears are, it’s probably enough. Amazon specifies that the average rating for these audiobooks is 4 stars (out of 5) and above.
However, the profession is worried: self-published authors today, and big publishing houses tomorrow? Some of them are interested in AI, but especially for translation (which is not the business of translators, obviously).
Amazon is not alone in the market for AI voices for audiobooks. Apple also launched quite discreetly at the beginning of 2023, aimed at independent authors and small publishers. The process is free, several voices (English only) are available, and the authors retain the rights to their books.
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