It’ll be important to see how entire books turn out.Since Apple announced its shift to not only be a hardware and software company but also a service one in 2018, it has introduced several new subscriptions such as Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and, ultimately, the Apple One bundle. Spotify will be watching these developments closely, as will the Amazon-owned titan of the audiobook market, Audible.Įarly returns sound good, but it’s important to remember that Apple is only sharing small snippets. Just a few months ago Spotify, which has a significant business in audiobooks and podcasts in addition to its core music offerings, complained that Apple was engaging in ‘anticompetitive behavior’ regarding audiobook purchases on the Spotify app on iPhones. Publishing is not guaranteed, Apple says: the narrated book must meet Apple’s quality and content standards.Īccording to The Guardian’s reporting on this, Apple will cover costs, however. There’s actually a long process to engage in, starting with signing up with a preferred partner who will manage the process, picking your title, selecting a voice, choosing cover art, and then waiting one to two months to process the book and conduct quality checks. Of course, English is just the beginning: Spanish, French, German, and other languages await similar capability.Īpple won’t just be applying the AI voices to every title in its library. While Apple hasn’t said anything about future voices, it’s likely the company will expand the program if it finds success to include other national accents such as English or Australian, and perhaps regional or ethnic voices such as American south or ebonics, or even traditional Boston or New York accents.
All of the four initial Apple voices are somewhat default non-accented American-sounding voices, with slightly differentiated intonation that suggest small variations in ethnic background.
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