The audiobooks will be clearly labelled as digitally narrated, the streaming giant said.
Spotify has started accepting audiobooks narrated by ElevenLabs’ artificial intelligence (AI) software, a move that the company claims will lower the barrier to entry for authors and expand their reach.
According to the company, ElevenLabs – a start-up developing AI-powered audio tools to create synthetic voices – provides authors with a cost-effective way to create “high quality” digitally narrated audiobooks.
Using the company’s AI software, authors can have their books narrated in 29 languages for distribution on Spotify – one of the world’s largest audiobook providers worldwide.
This, however, is not the first time Spotify has begun accepting digitally narrated audiobooks. The company’s audiobook distribution platform Findaway Voices previously partnered with Google Play Books for the same in 2023.
To help distinguish between human and AI narration, digitally narrated audiobooks will be marked both in the audiobook’s metadata as well as in the book description.
ElevenLabs provides users with 10 minutes of “ultra high quality” text to speech per month for free. However, the platform has a number of paid versions, including a “creator” plan, which costs $22 a month and provides 100 minutes of text to speech.
In January, ElevenLabs raised $180m in a Series C funding round, driving its total valuation up to more than $3bn. The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) and Iconiq Growth, alongside a number of new and existing investors.
According to the start-up, its latest funding round will enable it to expand its R&D, creating more expressive and controllable voice AI, as well as expand its tools for developers and businesses.
In just two years, the start-up has created “1,000 years of audio content”, it said. The company, which was founded in 2022, works with more than a major companies spread across various sectors, including Nvidia, ESPN, The New Yorker and Harper Collins, as well as AMGI Studios.
Early last year, the start-up reached unicorn status after an $80m Series B funding round co-led by A16z and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and entrepreneur Daniel Gross.
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