Apple Forays into AI Narration For its AudioBooks

Audiobook Popularity — A Growing Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

Apple is now growing the third leg of its existing audio business — music and podcasts being the first two, via audiobooks. Recently, Apple launched AI-narrative audiobooks via its Apple Books service, first rolling out the text-to-speech AI features for fiction and romance to make “the creation of audiobooks more accessible to all.”

The audiobook market has grown exponentially in the last few years, with 25 percent growth last year, raking in over $1.5B, according to Publisher’s Weekly.

Unlike its typical omnipresent marketing, this launch was quiet. First reported by The Guardian, the new feature was delayed two months due to chaotic news in the tech industry such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, Meta layoffs, and anxieties about job losses through AI such as Chat GPT.

For years, Apple has sold audiobooks through its Apple Books app. By creating this service, Apple shifts from being a reseller to more of a producer. Other tech companies have also been developing audio services, such as Google’s narration and AI efforts and Adobe’s new podcast services that offer AI recording and editing.

Apple has also been in touch with independent publishers, offering to narrate their books and cover production costs, while paying authors royalties. This new feature has significant repercussions in the audiobook industry, which is expected to hit $19.7B by 2028 and potentially $35B by 2030.

This move is expected to ignite debate and invoke ire as many authors and publishers do not like AI narration due to the loss of storytelling ambience and warmth in the voice of the narrator. It may also signify the death of the traditional narrator.

Apple’s AI Narration Service Offers Recording in Two Genres - Romance and Fiction

Apple offers two specific genres with this feature — romance and fiction and oddly limited sub-categories ((literary, historical, and women’s fiction are eligible; mysteries and thrillers, and science fiction and fantasy are not currently supported, according to its website).

As a cost-reduction service, this new feature has the potential for significant savings. Currently, developing audiobooks can be both time and cost-intensive. Authors often narrate their books in a process that can take several weeks and cost several thousands of dollars to produce. Through this new AI-narrated service, independent authors and smaller publishers will be able to roll out audiobooks at a significantly lower cost.

The new AI service offers voices that are intelligible but lack human warmth. However, as AI voice technology improves, this sound will likely improve as well.

Direct Competition with Amazon, the creator of Audible

Apple’s new AI narration service is directly competing with Amazon as Apple has listed its benefits in comparison to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing.

While Apple has forayed into this space, Amazon interestingly has explicitly chosen not to offer AI narration, saying that all audiobooks “must be narrated by a human.” Amazon also dominates the space through its Audible service. Kindle used to offer a text-to-speech feature about a decade ago, but this service was discontinued after copyright issues surfaced.

Apple says that both authors and publishers retain all audiobook rights and can put out other versions if desired.

Spotify Takes Aim

Spotify has been aiming to dominate the audio sphere for a while now, after its significant investment in podcasts through its acquisitions of Gimlet and Anchor media in addition to its popular streaming services. The company has also been investing in audiobooks. Spotify CEO Daniel Elk has not minced words about his dissatisfaction with Apple over the years where his company sells their audiobooks and offers music through the Spotify app, claiming that the App Store is anti-competitive. Audiobooks are a lucrative business, and now offer more fuel to fire the long-standing feud between the two companies. The company launched audiobooks just in October 2022, planning to push out 300,000 audiobook titles to customers. Spotify has repeated its complaints about Apple’s 30 percent commissions in the App Store and says that these rules and the “cumbersome process” make it harder to sell audiobooks

Apple’s AI narration removes the need for recording in the studio. Nonetheless, results are not instantaneous. It can still take up to two months for the book to be processed and quality checks conducted.

Partner Publishers

Two partner publishing companies, Draft2Digital and Ingram CoreSource, offer AI voice narration from Apple and authors have to sign up directly with these companies to receive access to the new feature. Currently, pricing models are not available publicly for the cost to produce or have this service. However, the audiobook market has a large consumer base and it is in the best interest of authors to get their books out to larger audiences.

Contactless Convenience: Target's Drive Up Now Enables You to Get a Latte On Checkout

Covid-19 Growth in Curbside Pickup Spurs New Convenience Options

Target (NYSE: TGT) is offering new convenient shopping options for shoppers at some locations this year, doubling down on its Drive Up curb delivery service where consumers can enjoy Starbucks coffee without leaving the car. While the popular retailer did not offer specifics on where it will be offering this new add-on convenience or when it will roll out the new service, Target said the company plans to scale up this feature nationwide. Target already offers Starbucks drinks at cafes located at many of its larger stores.

Target shoppers have increasingly opted for curbside delivery during the pandemic for store items and online purchases for safety and to minimize direct contact with other consumers and Target employees. Target also offers the convenience of safe same-day home delivery through its service, Shipt. As a result, Shipt grew almost 60 percent in the third quarter of 2021.

© Joe Raedle, Getty Images. A Target employee delivers an order to a drive up customer in Miami, Florida.

Target shared that customers requested Starbucks pickup and returns. The new service does not require a pickup window for either coffee deliveries or product returns. Target plans to add more merchandise and features to the Drive Up service, including fresh groceries, frozen goods, and alcohol.

The company intends to use its 2,000 stores as fulfillment hubs to drive its range of contactless same-day services, including Order Pickup, Drive Up, and Same Day Delivery with Shipt. Target’s digital business grew 200 percent from just a year ago, with these contactless services accounting for more than half of those sales.

Since the pandemic, other popular retailers like Amazon and Walmart have also seen massive digital sales and home delivery growth. Amazon offers both food delivery from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods and new grocery stores, while Walmart has its service for both groceries and retail products delivered to the home.

Amazon Enters the Medical Care Industry With Amazon Care

Amazon Care, Amazon’s Telehealth Solution is rolling out in all 50 states for its employees this summer, and opening up to other employers.

Frustrated with soaring medical costs and inadequate healthcare solutions, Amazon chairman and founder Jeff Bezos wanted to find a new healthcare solution that he could offer to Amazon’s large workforce and also to people all over the country. Amazon Care is the company’s bold new venture in this direction offering virtual healthcare services on demand, with dedicated ‘care’ teams of doctors and nurses, including clinician support day and night, weekends and on holidays and in-person, at-home care for tests, labs and treatment. The company also offers contact-free prescription delivery.

24/7, 365 Days of the Week Non-Emergency Medical Care

Amazon Care www.amazon.care is focused on offering non-emergency care immediately with virtual visits 24/7 and 365 days a year. This includes addressing sickness, fatigue, depression, anxiety and daily cares that may be exacerbated with the Covid-19 pandemic situation. This can be hugely helpful when sudden situations could become problematic such as babies getting sick overnight with high fevers.

Amazon’s Care Team works with Care Medical, an independent medical practice consisting of a dedicated group of licensed doctors, nurse practitioners and registered nurses to help individual health goals. This includes working with familiar faces for ongoing care. All clinicians have experience working with both adults and children, focused on “whole person care.” Questions can be answered right from the app.

Launched yesterday March 17, 2021 to serve other Washington-based companies, Amazon Care has been in operation for 18 months so far for Amazon employees and their families to access high-quality medical care quickly and easily. This service enables video or chat conferences as quickly as 60 seconds or less to medical professionals, eliminating lengthy wait times.

Amazon Care began as an app-based pilot program to Amazon employees in September 2019 and then rolled out to their workforce in Washington by September 2020.

Amazon Care offers two services:

Virtual Care: Connecting via the Amazon Care app for both Android and iOS for quick immediate medical help with a nurse or doctor using messaging or video
In-person care: Medical professionals come to the patient’s home to provide in-person care from routine blood draws to listening to a patient’s lungs.

The service also offers contactless prescription delivery right to a patient’s door. This summer, Amazon Care will expand to all 50 states to offer virtual care for its employees and to other companies. The service is speedy and effective, eliminating delays. Amazon Care, wellness clinics and pharmacy all work independently.

As a workplace benefit, Amazon Care offers immediate access to a range of urgent and primary care services, including COVID-19 and flu testing, vaccinations, treatment of illnesses and injuries, preventive care, sexual health, prescription requests, refills, and delivery, and additional wellness needs such as nutrition, joint and muscle health evaluations, sleep programs, pre-pregnancy planning and more. As Covid-19 has restricted travel with doctors also limiting access, Amazon Care adjusted in Seattle to offer vaccines in families’ homes.

Amazon Care offers free access to primary care physicians, labs and prescription delivery to all Amazon employees.

“My 3-year-old daughter woke up at 2 a.m. with a terrible cough, so bad that her breathing sounded restricted. Of course we were worried about COVID-19 and certainly did not want to go to an urgent care center or emergency room if we could avoid it. Using Amazon Care, we were able to connect with a clinician in under a minute who provided medical advice that helped us get through the night. She also prescribed a medication that was delivered to our doorstep by 9 a.m. the next day. Thanks to Amazon Care, we were able to manage her illness without ever having to leave the house.”

— Gina Baird, wife of Amazon employee

Patients can schedule follow up visits with their clinician as needed using the app. Patients receive care summaries and follow-up reminders after visits. When patients have in-person visits, they get estimates of when the clinician will arrive as well to their homes.

Amazon Care offers secure, HIPAA-compliant service so that employees and their families/dependents can visit with the same medical professionals, building long-term relationships and familiar connections. Seeing familiar faces is often important to a patient, but also in terms of care, essential for proper diagnosis and ongoing treatment for chronic diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, hypertension and more.

Idea Incubated First At Amazon and Then Expanded Out

Healthcare costs are usually the biggest expense for large employers such as Walmart after wages. Americans spent over $880 billion in healthcare costs just in 2020. Frustrated with soaring costs, Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, launched a joint venture with Warren Buffett and Jaime Dimon called Haven. Haven did not get enough traction and disbanded in 2021, but in the meantime, Amazon’s secret lab Grand Challenge that develops long-term solutions, created Amazon Care working with Amazon’s HR department to better understand what employees were looking for.

Amazon worked closely with Haven on several pilots, trying out copay plans in 2020. Leveraging its knowledge from Haven and its own workforce, Amazon developed Amazon Care focused on non-emergency healthcare and Amazon Pharmacy to deliver medications via Amazon Prime.

Amazon Care is operated by Care Medical, a medical organization that works exclusively with Amazon and provides all the doctors, nurses and necessary support staff. Care Medical has been filing paperwork in numerous states since early March, as reported by Stat News.

Digital health options have been growing rapidly since the Covid-19 pandemic, but Amazon’s approach differs in providing both telemedicine and pharmacy services. It is also working on health wearables, connected devices and diagnostic labs. Taking care of non-emergency medical care 24/7, 365 days of the week along with prescription delivery and diagnostic testing eliminates two of the largest expenses that involve visits to the hospital and nursing home, according to Jeff Becker, healthcare analyst at CB Insights who spoke to Business Insider.

In the Booming Medical Industry Business, Existing Telehealth Medical Companies Take Note

In the $3.8 trillion healthcare industry, existing telehealth providers took note of Amazon’s announcement. While this is the company's first entry into healthcare services beyond delivery of prescriptions and devices, Amazon’s launch reverberated through the industry as Amazon, a $1.6 trillion tech and shipping behemoth, has the capability and speed to deliver at scale. Shares in rival telehealth company Teladoc dropped more than 7%, while Amwell was down more than 5%.

Amazon has already upended industries that it entered as a newcomer, such as grocery shopping and delivery with its Amazon Fresh delivery service offered free of charge with an Amazon Prime subscription and its purchase of Whole Foods.