Apple offers AI narrated audiobooks to its users 

Last year, tech giant Google had already launched its AI-based audiobooks and now with the onset of a brand-new year, its key competitor Apple too has introduced its AI-narrated audiobooks to its Books Store. The goal? To increase accessibility and reduce publishing costs for authors and help publishers focus on their real, long-term objectives.  

For now, this service is only available in English and has been designed to enhance the number of audiobooks available on its app by inviting independent writers and big publishing houses to have their already written/ published books converted into audio using AI voice synthesis. This will not only make audiobooks more affordable but also provide job opportunities to voice artists.  

Sources cite that initially only fiction books and books of romance genre have been rolled out. Their digital narration will be offered by four distinct voices namely, Madison, Jackson, Helena and Mitchell. While the first duo will cater to fictions, the latter two will narrate non-fictions.  

Experts have lauded this move as it will be a much-welcome departure from current audiobook model wherein most books are narrated by authors themselves, costing the publishers millions and making it painstaking for the narrators themselves. Besides, it gives small amateur authors the chance to launch their books without the hassle of spending on traditional audiobook production or simply hardcover publishing.  

The good news, however, is that those who still choose to narrate their own books can do so as the AI-narrated audiobook feature is opt-in only. The process takes about a month and AI tracks are manually reviewed for quality assurance prior to publishing. People handing over their books will receive royalties from Apple. 

What’s interesting is that Apple was due to launch the initiative in mid-Novemeber last year but had to postpone amidst the ongoing layoffs at Meta and chaos surrounding the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk.  

But now, finally, when things have dialled down, Apple has come up with a catalogue of AI-narrated audiobooks to keep pace with the lucrative and fast-growing audiobook market. In fact, today’s 1.5-billion-dollar industry is said to quickly turn into a 35-billion-dollar industry by 2030, ushering in the AI-ruled audiobook era and the end of human narration.  

In case you are eager to access this brand-new Apple feature, all you need to do is log on to your Apple Book Store and search for AI narration.