amazon will begin inviting a small group of Audible narrators to train ai-generated voice clones of themselves this week, with the goal of accelerating audiobook production for the platform. The beta test, which was conducted only in the US, was Announced on Audible's Creator Marketplace and will be extended to rights holders such as authors, agents and publishers “later this year,” according to amazon.
“There is a vast catalog of books that don’t yet exist in audio form, and as we explore ways to bring more books to life on Audible, we’re committed to carefully balancing the interests of authors, narrators, publishers, and listeners,” amazon said in its announcement. Beta participants will submit a voice recording to train their ai replica and retain control over which projects they want to audition for, both live performances and ai-generated recordings.
Narrators can also use amazon’s production tools to edit the pronunciation and pacing of their ai voice replica if a rights holder selects them for a project, as well as review the final production for errors or inaccuracies. amazon says narrators will be compensated through a “title-by-title” “royalty-sharing” model, but it didn’t explain how much voiceover artists can expect to earn.
“Audible will not separately use a narrator’s voiceover for any content without their approval.”
The announcement blog says beta participants can create a voiceover “for free,” implying there may be an upfront cost for narrators in the future if the feature becomes available to the general public. All titles that are narrated using voiceovers will be labeled on the product detail page. “Narrators control which works are narrated with their voiceover,” amazon said. “Audible will not separately use a narrator’s voiceover for any content without their approval.”
