Spotify and ElevenLabs collaborate on launching AI reading audiobook

On Thursday, Spotify announced a partnership with ElevenLabs to formally accept audio books read aloud using the company's AI voice technology. As one of the most recognized AI audio providers right now, the new partnership is expected to significantly increase the number of AI reading audio books on the platform.

According to the new process, the author needs to download the audio file package from ElevenLabs first, and then access Findaway Voices, Spotify's audio book distribution service to upload. Before release, recordings will undergo an audit process to ensure compliance with the platform's standards. It is worth noting that Spotify will clearly mark books read aloud by AI so that listeners can distinguish them.

With ElevenLabs, the author can read his audiobooks in 29 languages. While the free version only allows 10 minutes of text-to-speech per month, its $99 professional plan can generate up to 500 minutes of reading. This allows more authors to use AI technology to create their own audiobooks.

The collaboration is another expansion after two years of Spotify's collaboration with Google Play Books to provide AI reading audiobooks. Spotify plans to work with more companies to further expand its audio library. This shows that Spotify's layout in the field of audio books is accelerating, striving to provide users with richer content choices.

However, the rise of AI-generated audiobooks has also sparked widespread discussion in the publishing community. Some industry experts expressed concern about this, believing that AI reading may affect the overall quality of audio books and cannot be compared with the performance of professional readers. This concern about quality may become a major challenge in the development of the audio book market in the future.