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The Apple Books icon on a Mac.
Samuel Axon
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This is how the digitally narrated books look in the Mac Books app.
Samuel Axon
Apple’s digital storefronts now offer audiobooks recorded by artificial narrators rather than humans in a sound booth. The audiobooks are listed in the Books app as “Told by Apple Books.”
Clicking the information icon next to that line brings up 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” or “Jackson,” but each book is offered with only one of them.
We each listened to two digitally spoken titles for an hour. The calm tones were clear and mostly benign, and could be mistaken for real human voices on a short listen. However, we have heard some anomalies, for example a strange pronunciation of the city ‘San Antonio’. And it’s clear that the neutral and unemotional voices are no substitute for styles of human audiobook narration that can be impassioned performances.
Based on our searches (you can type “AI narration” in the Books search field to see a list), many of the publications in question tend to be small books from small publishers, such as lesser-known genres or romance novels.
According to The Guardian, Apple has been contacting independent book publishers in recent months and told them it would pay the cost of the digital recordings but pay authors royalties on sales. Some publishers agreed, others did not. But this is probably just the beginning of Apple’s efforts, and more may be added later. Apple probably won’t be the only company doing this either. Google and Amazon, also major suppliers of both ebooks and audiobooks, have previously spoken publicly about this possibility.
Audiobooks are a huge business; their sales and popularity have skyrocketed in recent years. But while some independent publishers and self-published authors have thrived, audiobooks have mostly been a market for major publishers and, yes, tech platforms.
A potential benefit of this development is the availability of audiobooks to publications and authors who may not have budgeted for audio versions. But as with so many AI applications lately, this development raises questions about what could happen to human narrators working in the company, as well as concerns about who benefits most. If AI narrators become something that readers widely accept and enjoy, it could increase the influence of Apple and other tech companies over publishers and authors who want as many people as possible to see or hear their work.
Frame image by Samuel Axon
