Amazon Lets Audible Narrators Clone Themselves Using AI

Amazon will begin inviting a compact group of Audible narrators to train AI-generated voice clones this week in a bid to speed up production of audiobooks for the platform. The U.S.-only beta test was announced on Audible Creator Market and according to Amazon, they will be extended to rights holders such as authors, agents and publishers “later this year.”

“There’s a huge catalog of books that don’t yet exist on audio, and as we explore ways to bring more books to life on Audible, we’re committed to thoughtfully balancing the interests of authors, narrators, publishers, and listeners,” Amazon said in its announcement. Beta participants will submit a voice recording to train their AI replica and will retain control over which projects they audition for, whether live performances or AI-generated recordings.

Narrators can also utilize Amazon’s production tools to edit the pronunciation and tempo of the AI ​​voice replica if a rights holder selects them for the project, as well as review the final production for errors or inconsistencies. Amazon says narrators will be paid through a “royalty share” model on a title-by-title basis, but it did not elaborate on how much voice artists can expect to earn.

The blog post said that beta participants can create a voice replica “for free,” meaning that narrators may incur an upfront cost in the future if the feature becomes generally available. Any titles that are read using voice replicas will be marked on the product details page. “Narrators control which works are read using their voice replica,” Amazon said. “Audible will not separately use a narrator’s voice replica for any content without their consent.”