Voice AI firm ElevenLabs is now letting authors publish AI-generated audiobooks by itself Reader app, TechCrunch has discovered and the corporate confirmed. The announcement comes days after the corporate partnered with Spotify for AI-narrated audiobooks.
ElevenLabs, which raised a $180 million mega-round final month, began inviting authors to check out their publishing program via their app on a trial foundation final yr, TechCrunch beforehand noticed. That program is newly open to all authors as of as we speak.
The firm confirmed the event to TechCrunch, explaining the concept is to supply reasonably priced and accessible instruments for audiobook creation, which could have in any other case value rather more to supply in a studio.
The platform itself goals to compete with Audible, which ElevenLabs believes presents decrease royalty charges for authors. Under its mannequin, ElevenLabs’ audiobooks can be supplied inside its personal Reader app and the corporate pays authors when customers interact with their content material.
Currently, it pays roughly $1.10 to authors when listeners interact with an audiobook for 11 minutes or extra.
ElevenLabs mentioned the typical consumer spent 19 minutes listening to the revealed books on its app throughout the testing part. While the startup thinks that these charges are among the many greatest within the business, they might nonetheless change as this system scales.
At launch, the payout is obtainable to authors in the U.S. and for English-only titles. Later, it goals to increase payouts to titles within the 32 languages it helps for audiobooks.
The firm additionally plans to create a market the place authors can promote their content material.
The greater alternative for ElevenLabs entails authors and publishers producing audiobooks utilizing its AI tech by means of its paid plans starting from $11 to $330 monthly. This is cheaper than reserving studio time and paying voice actors.
Notably, ElevenLabs has already powered different audio platforms like Pocket FM and Kuku FM to show textual content into audio content material.
The firm’s transfer to turn into a publishing and distribution floor to host extra indie content material is according to ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski’s plans to develop into extra shopper experiences.
