[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #789: Can audiobooks without humans be successful?

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OPLIN 4Cast #789: Can audiobooks without humans be successful?
February 9th, 2022

[image: Headphones on open book] Over the years, I've listened to my fair
share of audiobooks. Even though I've worked from home for over a decade,
I've driven a lot of long road trips that have made staying awake an
absolute necessity. Audiobooks have filled that need, along with keeping me
and my family entertained in the interim. I've only very rarely run into
books that have boring narrators, thankfully. Most have amazing voicing and
acting. But what happens when humans are taken out of the equation?

   -
   - Synthetic Voices Want to Take Over Audiobooks
   <https://www.wired.com/story/audiobooks-synthetic-voices/> [Wired]
   "Synthetic voices have become less grating in recent years, in part due to
   artificial intelligence research by companies such as Google and Amazon,
   which compete to offer virtual assistants and cloud services with smoother
   artificial tones. Those advances have also been used to
   make reality-spoofing “deepfakes.” Speechki is one of several startups
   developing speech synthesis for audiobooks."
   - AI Influence on Audiobooks Grows—As Does Controversy
   <https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/88477-ai-influence-on-audiobooks-grows-as-does-controversy.html>
   [Publishers Weekly] "Lawrence believes there are many ethical issues
   surrounding AI technology. “For example,” she notes, “if I were to license
   my voice, and lose all control over how my voice is then used, my voice
   could potentially be used to voice content that I find morally repulsive.”
   She also points out that “as of now, a lot of AI licensing consists of
   non-union contracts,” and that narrators are vulnerable to entering
   agreements that exploit their voices and don’t offer fair compensation."
   - Audiobooks, AI, and humans – where do they stand?
   <https://goodereader.com/blog/audiobooks/audiobooks-ai-and-humans-where-do-they-stand>
   [Good eReader] "Typically, producing an audiobook can take months with the
   cost easily stretching into thousands of dollars. Much of that involves
   studio time as well as paying the voice artist. Plus, there is significant
   post-production work involved too. All of this makes producing an audiobook
   quite an arduous as well as an expensive affair. No wonder, this has
   created the space for the AI-enabled text-to-speech tools that can prove to
   be an exact replica of the human voice."
   - AI Comes to Audiobooks
   <https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/87762-ai-comes-to-audiobooks.html>
   [Publishers Weekly] "The value proposition for automated audiobook creation
   becomes a combination of cost and convenience, where convenience is a
   combination of both simplifying and vastly accelerating the production
   process. A few new startups claim to be able to produce audiobooks in days
   or even hours, rather than months."

*From the Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - DIGITAL AUDIOBOOKS IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES: A CURRENT ASSESSMENT
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=149525225&site=ehost-live>
   (Blackwell, M., Coan, D., Mason, C., & Parker, C. (2021). Digital
   Audiobooks in Public Libraries: A Current Assessment. *Computers in
   Libraries*, *41*(3), 20–27.)
   - Public Libraries and Schools Surpass Half a Billion Digital Book Loans
   in 2021
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmh&AN=202201050704PR.NEWS.USPR.CL21822>(PR
   Newswire. (2022, January 5). Public Libraries and Schools Surpass Half a
   Billion Digital Book Loans in 2021. *PR Newswire US*.)
   - AN EAR FOR READING
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=149976730&site=ehost-live>
   (KLETTER, M. (2021). AN EAR FOR READING. (cover story). *School Library
   Journal*, *67*(5), 20–23.)

------------------------------
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