Kindle Unlimited becoming Kindle Plus

[NNolan]

https://www.zdnet.com/tech/kindle-un...audiobooks-ai/

[Dr. Drib]

ANYONE! SOMEONE! RIGHT NOW!

WAKE ME UP!

(I TELL YA!)

[Martinoptic]

WAKEY WAKEY Don. Hope that helped.

[Cactus Chef]

Doesn't Amazon own Audible, the single largest purveyor of online audiobooks?

Seems like adding AI narration to their books would be cannibalizing their own sales.

[Maxbet]

That's an interesting point about Audible.

I think there's a difference between adding AI narration to a book that never had an audiobook and offering it as an alternative to an existing professional recording.

The first could actually bring in new listeners. The second might compete directly with Audible.

What I'd really like to see is clear labeling of human versus AI narration, along with a decent audio sample before choosing.

Has anyone tried the new additions yet?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Martinoptic

WAKEY WAKEY Don. Hope that helped.

Aren't you glad I didn't say..."Pinch me!")

(Film: Airplane.)

[Apache]

Personally, I will not buy an audiobook read by AI.
Apache

[Martinoptic]

I've not tried an ai read book, but those that have been text to speeches in the past have been dreadful.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by Martinoptic

I've not tried an ai read book, but those that have been text to speeches in the past have been dreadful.

Sometimes in the past, when I was doing a walk or some other mundane activity and was short on podcasts to listen to, I'd occasionally go through my Pocket backlog of longform articles and have it "read" the articles to me via Android's TTS engine. I think Instapaper has this feature as well, but I've not used it yet.

For a certain kind of thing it was "good enough"--like a news article, or perhaps a non-fiction book. I imagine some people may want to use it simply because they want to digest the thing but can't "read" it at that moment.

One thing I have heard people complain about is wanting to switch between reading the book and having it dictated (like they started a book in bed and want to continue making progress on their commute to work the next morning), and Amazon not being able to sync the progress between the two. I wonder if the AI reader is meant to facilitate that.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Apache

Personally, I will not buy an audiobook read by AI.
Apache

IIRC there was an audio version of one book read by the Author.
The only thing he did better than the AI cr*p I have heard, is the word pronunciation was correct.

An Audiobook is a performance. I remember listening to the Radio performances in the 50's. In those cases, there usually were multiple voice actors and what and how they delivered lines was from the story context. The few Audiobook performances, are just that, PERFORMANCES with different voices for characters done by 1 or 2 people.

(anyone know of a Youtube showing the actual prep work and how the switch is recorded: Linear or by a separate character session)

[gbm]

The listen to this.

https://www.baen.com/podcastfiles/mp...-Christmas.mp3
Here is the page to buy a copy.
https://www.baen.com/catalog/product/view/id/2633
bernieDetroit Christmas is a richly imagined, fully produced audio play, with original music, film-quality sound effects, and an amazing cast.

This audio drama is available in both WAV and MP3 formats. The play sounds great in MP3 format. WAV files have a large dynamic range and are suitable for high quality sound systems.

Running time: 1 hour 12 minutes.
CAST

Spoiler:

Jake Sullivan: Lex Wilson
Emily Fordyce: Meredith Sause
Sadie: Tracey Coppedge
Abraham Horowitz: Craig Brandwynne
Johnny Bones: Jim Moscater
Agent Sam Cowley: Paris Battle
Snowball: Paul Kilpatrick
Jimmy Sullivan: Carter
Tommy Boy: Cokie Daniel
Leroy: Richard T. Skarbez
Bruno Haupmann: Steven G. Cooper
Lieutenant: Gray Rinehart
Gangster: Paul Millsaps
CREW
Sound Design: Barry Jaked and Craig Brandwynne
Music: Cheri Leone and Matty Karas
Assistant Director: Alex Granados
Poster: Ron Miller
Adaptation and Script: Tony Daniel
Directed by: Rika Daniel
Baen Books Publisher: Toni Weisskopf

A BAEN BOOKS AUDIO DRAMA

Originally Posted by theducks

IIRC there was an audio version of one book read by the Author.
The only thing he did better than the AI cr*p I have heard, is the word pronunciation was correct.

An Audiobook is a performance. I remember listening to the Radio performances in the 50's. In those cases, there usually were multiple voice actors and what and how they delivered lines was from the story context. The few Audiobook performances, are just that, PERFORMANCES with different voices for characters done by 1 or 2 people.

(anyone know of a Youtube showing the actual prep work and how the switch is recorded: Linear or by a separate character session)

[JSWolf]

Kindle+ is mostly about AI read audiobooks. In plain English, it's rubbish.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gbm

TbernieDetroit Christmas is a richly imagined, fully produced audio play, with original music, film-quality sound effects, and an amazing cast.

It's highly compressed MP3. No way is it film-quality sound. It very much sounds overly compressed.

[gbm]

I recommend that you go and carefully reread my post--the compete post-- word for word.

bernie

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's highly compressed MP3. No way is it film-quality sound. It very much sounds overly compressed.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by theducks

IIRC there was an audio version of one book read by the Author.
The only thing he did better than the AI cr*p I have heard, is the word pronunciation was correct.

An Audiobook is a performance. I remember listening to the Radio performances in the 50's. In those cases, there usually were multiple voice actors and what and how they delivered lines was from the story context. The few Audiobook performances, are just that, PERFORMANCES with different voices for characters done by 1 or 2 people.

(anyone know of a Youtube showing the actual prep work and how the switch is recorded: Linear or by a separate character session)

Authors should never read their works. Voice acting and storytelling are skills that narrators have practiced for many years so they can deliver an exciting story. There may be a few authors that could narrate their stories. They are probably few and far between.
Apache