Voice AI Company ElevenLabs allows authors to publish AI-generated audiobooks in their own reader apps. TechCrunch was studied and the company confirmed it. The announcement comes days after the company partnered with Spotify, an AI-narrated audiobook.
Last month, ElevenLabs, which raised a $180 million mega-round, began inviting authors to try out publishing programs through the app with their trials last year. The program is newly opened to all authors as of today.
The company confirmed the development with TechCrunch and explained it was to provide an affordable and accessible tool for creating audiobooks.
The platform itself is intended to compete with Audible. This is what we believe ElevenLabs will provide authors with a low royalty rate. Under that model, ElevenLabs audiobooks are delivered within their own Reader app, and the company pays the author when users are involved in the content.
Currently, if a listener joins an audiobook for more than 11 minutes, he pays the author about $1.10.
ElevenLabs said the average user spent 19 minutes listening to the app’s published books during the testing phase. Startups believe these prices are the best in the industry, but they may change as the program expands.
At the start, payments will be provided for US authors and English-only titles. It then aims to extend the payout to titles in 32 languages that support audiobooks.
The company will also create a market where authors can sell their content.
A major opportunity for 11 Labers is for authors and publishers to use AI technology to generate audiobooks using paid plans ranging from $11 to $330 per month. This is cheaper than booking studio time and paying audio actors.
In particular, ElevenLabs has already powered other audio platforms such as Pocket FM and Kuku FM to convert text into audio content.
The company’s move to become a publishing and distribution side to host more indie content is in line with ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski’s plans to expand into a more consumer experience.
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