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.

Apple Purchases PullString, Voice App Firm Known for Voice Systems in Toys like Hello Barbie

Apple acquires PullString, a voice app startup in San Francisco that publishes apps for Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and is known for providing the voice software system for toys.

The move is viewed as part of Apple’s push into voice recognition and artificial intelligence technology, although Apple has not spoken publicly about the recent acquisition. The purchase under $100 million, brings both voice technology and talent to Apple.

Founded by Pixar executives in 2011, PullString was formerly called ToyTalk. The company’s primary product, Converse, enables customers to create their own apps with distinct voices and advanced sound options. Converse was widely used in Mattel toys, such as the popular Hello Barbie and Thomas the Tank Engine products.

Recently, PullString has forayed into IoT devices, primarily focused on virtual assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant. PullString’s Converse lets you create your own customizable interactions with users. This is a feature that Siri lacks. Apple could be purchasing PullString to help grow Siri-enabled apps and features, which lag behind the numerous integrations available today via open sourced Amazon and Google AI.

Current Converse integrations range from customer support experiences such as troubleshooting issues to voice-enabled FAQ and games, trivia and quizzes. Converse could help accelerate Siri-powered apps by providing developers with better tools and also to provide integrations directly into the iPhone and HomePod.

Apple's Acquisition of AI Startup Silk Labs Demonstrates the Company's Philosophy of Privacy First

Apple’s Preference for Artificial Intelligence Powered Devices and Services That Respect Your Privacy

Apple’s Approach to AI: Privacy-First

According to a Tuesday report shared by The Information, Apple has quietly acquired privacy-focused AI startup, Silk Labs. While Silk Labs is a relatively small acquisition as the company’s round of prior funding had raised $4 million only and had 12 employees, the purchase demonstrates a growing divide between Apple and other tech giants hotly pursuing artificial intelligence growth.

While companies like Google focus on providing the most accessible AI services with the hope that providing ease of use will overcome privacy concerns, Apple takes the opposite approach, insisting upon privacy. From taking photos to asking Siri questions or getting directions, users can be confident using Apple’s platform that their data remains private and that Apple does not gather their personal information to sell to advertisers or other organizations.

The Sense smart-home assistant launched on Kickstarter was the first AI product of Silk Labs and ran completely on local user devices. While Sense was never brought to market, the product reflected the same privacy-focused philosophy that Apple has taken regarding the use of artificial intelligence.

Google Focuses on Scale and Ease of Use at the Cost of Privacy

On the other hand, Google’s recent AI acquisitions, Onward and Dialogflow, are cloud-based services that employ natural language processing to communicate with customers at scale. Scale and ease of use are the dominant factors affecting Google’s approach to AI to work with its existing business strategy.

To Share or Not to Share?

A 2017 study by Deloitte discovered that a majority of Americans are not comfortable sharing their browsing and social media activity with companies. Nonetheless, the number of Americans who are willing to do so has still doubled from 2014 to 2016.

How will consumers respond as the race for AI dominance continues? Will the decision be based on technology performance, ease of use and scalability? Will consumers be more concerned about their personal freedom and privacy? Perhaps then, the popularity of AI platforms in the future will be determined more by philosophy than technology. Apple seems to think so.