Apple’s digital storefront now offers audiobooks recorded by artificial narrators instead of humans in sound booths. Audiobooks are listed in the Books app as “Narrated by Apple Books”.
Clicking on the information icon next to that line reveals a text box clarifying that the book is narrated by a “digital voice based on a human narrator.” There are multiple digital voices in the Apple Books library with names like “Madison” and “Jackson”, but each book contains only one.
I listened to two digitally narrated titles for an hour each. The soothing tone is clear and almost benign, and a brief listening can be mistaken for a real human voice. However, some anomalies were heard, such as the odd pronunciation of the city “San Antonio.” And clearly, a neutral, emotionless voice is no substitute for the style of human audiobook narration that can be a passionate performance.
Based on our searches (you can type “AI narration” in the book search field to see a list), many of the publications in question are mostly minor, in lesser-known genres or romance novels. A small volume of books from a large publisher.
according to Guardian, Apple has reached out to independent book publishers over the past few months to tell them it will pay up front for digital recordings but will pay authors royalties on sales. Other publishers disagreed. But this is probably just the beginning of Apple’s efforts, and more may be added later. Apple is probably not the only one to do that. Google and Amazon, which are also major providers of both ebooks and audiobooks, have spoken publicly about this possibility before.
Audiobooks are huge business.their sales and popularity soared in recent years. But even as some independent publishers and self-published authors thrive, audiobooks are largely a market for major publishers and technology platforms.
One potential benefit of this development is that it will make audiobooks available to publishers and authors who may not have had the budget for an audio version. But like so many recent AI applications, this development raises questions about what will happen to human narrators working in businesses, and concerns about who will benefit most. If AI narrators are widely accepted and enjoyed by readers, the impact Apple and other technology companies will have on publishers and authors who want their work seen and heard by as many people as possible. Might increase power.
Listing image by Samuel Axon