• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, January 9, 2023

Apple is gunning for Amazon and setting the stage for a potential shakeup in the $5 billion-plus audiobook business by launching generally available, affordable artificial intelligence-generated voice narration options.

The options, introduced quietly on its website, mark the start of Apple going beyond selling audiobooks in its stores to become an audiobook producer.

Apple is already offering “digital narration” options for romance and fiction books written in English on the Apple Books app, and publishers and authors have already used it to publish hundreds of audiobooks. The books are described in the Apple storefronts as narrated by Apple Books, with a “digital voice based on a human narrator.”

Both Amazon and Google have alluded to the possibility of launching generally available AI narration services.

Amazon has an AI narration technology, called Polly. The Washington Post uses the tech to offer audible articles across platforms, and Amazon offers audible versions of the newspaper’s special reports as free incentives with Audible subscription trials. But Amazon to date has not allowed digitally narrated books from third-party sources to be sold on Audible, the No. 1 audiobook sales outlet, according to the Observer.

Apple is currently offering two AI narration voices optimized for the romance/fiction genres (one soprano, one baritone), and nonfiction and self-help options are in development, according to the company’s authors’ website.

Apple says its proprietary AI narration technology opens up the audiobook business to smaller and independent publishers that have been unable to afford costly human narration.

“More and more book lovers are listening to audiobooks, yet only a fraction of books are converted to audio — leaving millions of titles unheard,” says the site. “Many authors — especially independent authors and those associated with small publishers — aren’t able to create audiobooks due to the cost and complexity of production. Apple Books digital narration makes the creation of audiobooks more accessible to all, helping you meet the growing demand by making more books available for listeners to enjoy.”

The AI narration option can cost as little as $100 per book, in contrast to human narration fees that can range into the many thousands, particularly if a celebrity or the famous author of a book is tapped.

Some book critics and industry pros say AI narration technology isn’t ready to revolutionize the market as yet.

Apple’s technology currently produces narration that is adequate — even at times capable of tricking the ear into thinking it is a human narrator. But it is flat and lacks the nuance and artistic, emotional delivery of human narrators that engages listeners and is critical to the success of nonfiction works, in particular.

However, few doubt that AI narration will reshape the industry within the foreseeable future.

And it could spell serious trouble for professionals who now make their living narrating audiobooks—at least if they start accepting flat fees for letting their voices be used by AI programs that are then free to employ them across books, rather than hold out for fees based on usage.