Spotify’s embrace of AI-generated audio is a blessing and curse for authors

As we covered in August 2024, the future of AI-generated audiobooks is here. Up until this month, however, streaming platforms themselves had yet to fully embrace AI audiobook narration. Now, Spotify has announced their support for ElevenLabs’ AI-generated audiobook content, paving the way for end-to-end audiobook generation that could capture audiences who demonstrate no clear preference between AI- and human-generated content. What does that mean for authors?

According to Spotify’s For the Record announcement on the partnership, authors seeking an affordable way to produce professional audiobooks can now leverage ElevenLabs’ AI-powered voice narration platform to deliver audio versions of their books to Spotify almost instantly via Spotify’s audiobook platform for independent authors, Findaway Voices.  

Here’s how it works: After generating an audiobook using ElevenLabs, authors download the file package and upload it to Findaway Voices. Following a review process, the audiobook will be available on Spotify, along with other retailers that accept digital voice-narrated content from Findaway Voices.  

Importantly, however, all AI-narrated audiobooks will be clearly labeled in the metadata on Spotify and other distribution platforms, and the book description will begin with the statement, “This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice”. While an important designation for some, the question is how much audiences will ultimately care about – or even notice – this label. 

Many consumers listen to audiobooks out of convenience and not necessarily because audiobooks are more entertaining. As AI-generated voices begin to sound more and more human, or as listeners grow more accustomed to the sound of AI-generated voices, labels indicating that audio has been generated by AI will soon become moot from a consumer perspective. If the difference in voice quality is marginal and the ultimate benefit is convenience, then most consumers are not likely to care much.

From an author perspective, Spotify’s early embrace of AI-generated audio will be a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, independent authors can focus more on writing and less on having to expend resources translating their books to an audio format. That will ultimately open up more avenues for marketing, discovery, and monetisation. On the other hand, officially platforming AI-generated audio opens the door for end-to-end AI-generated audiobooks and a looming reckoning with the meaning of authorship and creativity. 

Generative AI is already producing text-based content trained on copyrighted material, and that text-based content is already being sold on Amazon as books – even though these books technically do not have (human) authors. For companies that are creating AI-generated texts, there is very little standing in their way from diversifying their revenue streams with audio. At that point, the question will become whether AI can ever evolve from generative to creative.