As the Guardian notes, it’s a strategy that has to contend with criticism from plenty of stakeholders other than readers.
As far as we’re aware, there has not been a standard-issue press release for the project, and Apple seems to be directing its publicity at authors and publishers more than media sites or the general public.Īnd those authors might not be so keen on the idea. It’s clear that automating the narration process will save a lot of money in the long tail of quickly produced, low-readership books, but it’s also obvious why Apple is being cautious about rolling this out for more high-profile titles, and about highlighting the move in general. The technology is no doubt improving and may be able to replace human voice actors within a few years, but it’s not there yet. I continually drifted off, filtering the sound out as background noise. There also isn’t the intangible human emotional quality that helps the listener to stay engaged. “Madison” doesn’t quite sound like a person, and can’t convincingly adapt her speech patterns to the content of the text. But is it actually effective? I listened to the first few pages of Shelter From The Storm by Kristen Ethridge, and was struck by how inhuman it sounded.