There’s a lot of audio content out there.
Audiobooks, podcasts, and now, narrated articles.
Companies like Audm and Curio produce audio versions of work from established publications like Rolling Stone, WIRED, and The New York Times.
But what if I want to listen to my favorite blogger?
Yes, there’s text-to-speech technology, but it’s crude and impersonal. It doesn’t compare to hearing someone read their own memoir or articulate their own argument.
Here’s my idea:
Writers record their voice over a set of training data (perhaps a few of their articles).
The platform auto-generates an audio version of each post, in the “voice” of the writer.
Writers can edit snippets of the audio files that they’d like to improve. (This would also help train the platform.)
Users pay a monthly fee to have written work accessible as listening (if the author has opted-in1).
Writers receive a royalty based on how many people listened to their “voice”.
I first thought of this when I realized how much time some writers were spending manually narrating their work. (Most don’t even bother.)
Why this works
Writers: make their content more accessible, receive royalties on their voice
Users: get the convenience of listening and the improved experience of hearing the author’s voice
Platform: build a profitable business
Obviously there are questions around intellectual property, ownership, and technical integration. But those are for someone else to figure out :)
Quick Brainwaves
Olympics
The Olympics are always such a positive and unique experience. Compared to all the junk we try to keep up with, the Olympics go by way too quickly.
I shared some additional thoughts in this thread.
What’s your favorite part of the Olympics?
Masks and Numeracy
I’ve noticed more people seem to be wearing masks outdoors recently. Of course, I definitely prefer people be overcautious than be reckless, but it’s still a little confusing to me: we knew at this point last year that contracting COVID was significantly less likely outdoors – and that was before we had vaccines!
I understand there is concern around the Delta variant. But for the fully vaccinated (which describes 78% of my zip code), there is a much smaller risk than before.
Again: better safe than sorry. But I’m not sorry for walking down the street without a mask.
Until next time!
There is an option to let people listen to any “narrator” they want. If you could have Morgan Freeman read you everything, would you?