IAN “Audiobooks with virtual voice”

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I’m almost certain I’ve written a journal about this in the past. When I first learned that Amazon was experimenting with virtual voice, I made my opinion loud and clear to anyone who would listen. It bothers me to know what such things can be used for and how easily they can be used as an excuse to put hard-working and struggling people out of work. However, there are three sides to every story and time has helped me come across another side of this story. Audiobooks are an expensive market. Audible sets the bar pretty high before they’ll even consider adding your book to their marketplace. Recently, however, they’ve started offering authors the option to have their books read by a virtual voice at a much lower cost and while I still fear for the future of something I consider art, I have to admit that I’m grateful that this is being offered as an option to authors who otherwise couldn’t afford the cost of publishing their books as audio. One of the authors I now read often actually wouldn’t have had this option otherwise.

That being said, there is the other side of the coin, which is the fact that by using the virtual voice, Audible customers can now get books at a much lower price. (From what I’ve seen, the books cost $1.99 each.)

So yes, there are positives to the idea, like most, and yes, I have started reading books with virtual voices, but I am still haunted by the fear of what this will mean for so many of the voices I have grown to love.

~Written in memory of the ever talented Frank Muller and all the other voices that have lived before us.~