Audiobooks are awesome. Not only do audiobooks make reading more accessible for those with dyslexia and vision impairments, but they are also lifesavers for people who can’t hold physical books due to chronic pain or other illnesses.
Unfortunately, only a small percentage of books are available in audio form (roughly 5 to 10 percent, as estimated by ChatGPT). However, audiobook sales have been steadily growing over the years. Something tells us that AI-narrated audiobooks might cause both the number of available audiobooks and audiobook sales to grow even more.
Apple Launches AI-Narrated Audiobooks
In January 2023, in a post on Apple Books for Authors, Apple released the first AI-narrated audiobooks (referred to as “digital narration”).
Not to be confused with screen reading, which you can program Kindles and other e-readers to perform, AI-narrated audiobooks are created to sound as human as possible. Apple’s digital voices were created to help indie authors and publishers make their books more accessible for a fraction of what a human reader would cost.
Do AI-Narrated Audiobooks Sound Weird?
The samples offered by Apple, which you can preview in Apple’s announcement, sound strangely human. It’s possible that Apple chose the best samples possible in order to encourage authors to take advantage of their digital narration technology. In other words, while the samples don’t contain any obvious pronunciation errors, this doesn’t mean the books themselves won’t.
If you preview other AI-narrated audiobooks in the Apple Books stores, you can occasionally hear mispronunciations or strange cadences (we’ll show you how to find digitally-narrated books a bit later on). At the same time, the digital voices aren’t the worst narrators you’ve ever heard. Naturally, AI-narrated books can’t hold a candle to master narrators like Stephen Fry, January LaVoy, or Will Patton.
There are a few different voices to choose from: two feminine sopranos and three masculine baritones. One of the most popular voices, Madison, is featured in countless books available in the Apple Store. Her soothing, melodic voice is reminiscent of the gifted audiobook narrator Juliana Whelan.
Top-class narrator Bahni Turpin may have been the inspiration for Helena, one of the feminine voices for non-fiction books (though it falls substantially short of the real thing). Overall, we think we could get used to AI-narrated books, but there are bound to be many listeners who won’t enjoy them.
How to Find AI-Narrated Apple Books
To find books narrated by Apple’s digital voices, open the Books app on your Apple device, tap the Search icon, then tap Audiobooks to narrow your search. Finally, type Apple Books. Any digitally-voiced audiobook will have “Narrated by Apple Books” in the description.
There isn’t really a convenient way to find digitally narrated books from the Apple Books Store on the web since anything you type in the search bar searches the whole Apple App Store as opposed to just the audiobook section.
There isn’t a separate section devoted to AI narrators on the web, nor within the Books app, but this may change in the future.
Are AI-Narrated Audiobooks Cheaper?
The AI-narrated books available on the Apple Store are reasonably priced, as high as $9.99 and as low as $1.99, with most of them running around $4 to $5. There are plenty of free options as well, so you can try out one of the digital narrators before you buy.
Audiobooks can get pretty expensive, with popular titles read by human readers running anywhere from $9.99 to $19.99 and beyond. Some of you will remember the days when audiobooks on CDs were $40 to $50 for a single book. Let’s just say we’re glad that sites like Audible and Audible alternatives exist.
Are AI-Narrated Audiobooks a Good Thing?
This question really depends on who you ask. Many people believe that AI-narrated books will not only grow the number of audiobooks available on the market, they’ll make audiobooks accessible for authors who can’t afford human narrators.
According to Scribe Media, it can cost between $500 to $750 per hour of finished content to create an audiobook. Only well-established authors and publishing companies can afford to put up that kind of cash. Even though Apple doesn’t specify in its guide to getting started with digital narration how much its digital narrators cost, we can assume that it’s a lot less than a human narrator.
On the other hand, some people feel that books narrated by AI will take opportunities away from human readers who lend their voices to audiobooks. Since much of the world is already concerned about how AI is taking jobs from humans, the idea of digitally narrated audiobooks is only adding fuel to the fire.
Whatever your opinions, it looks like content created by AI is here to stay (and increase in number) for the foreseeable future.
Audiobooks Are Necessary
It’s easy to see that AI-narrated books can offer some pretty significant benefits. However, the trade-off lies in the loss of a nuanced, emotional performance that only a great audiobook narrator can give. Those who love audiobooks may be disappointed at the quality of the digital narrators, but the fact that the book they’re looking for is available in audiobook format could make up for it.
Audiobooks, whether they’re narrated by humans or AI, have played a crucial part in making reading more accessible.
