Want to hear The Wizard of Oz read by Judy Garland or Sherlock Holmes read by Sir Laurence Olivier? Thanks to a deal with the estates of several artists, ElevenLabs has artificial intelligence-generated voice clones of these and other deceased celebrities available on its recently launched Reader app.
ElevenLabs’ Reader app allows users to listen to any digital text, including articles, PDFs and e-books, read by artificial voices created using artificial intelligence. The company’s exclusive library of voices now includes Hollywood legends. The first famous voices include James Dean, Burt Reynolds, Judy Garland and Sir Laurence Olivier, created in collaboration with their respective estates.
“It is exciting to see that our mother’s voice is now available to the countless millions of people who love her,” said Liza Minnelli, representative of the Garland Estate, daughter of Judy Garland, in a statement. “Through ElevenLabs’ spectacular new technology, our family believes this will bring new fans to Mama and will be exciting for those who already appreciate the unparalleled legacy that Mama has left and continues to leave to the world.”
The Reader app uses sophisticated algorithms to ensure that the voiceovers are not only accurate, but also convey the right emotional tone and context. Those who want to hear the voices can try the ElevenLabs Reader app free for three months or subscribe to the ElevenLabs platform to get access to the iOS app. An Android version is also coming soon.
If you don’t want any of the familiar voices, the Reader app offers many others that the user can customize to any accent, style and tone they feel suits the text they want to hear.
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Celebrity Sounds
ElevenLabs is touting its new celebrity voices as a way to use AI to preserve and celebrate cultural heritage. By recreating the voices of these legendary figures, the company is honoring their contribution to the world while opening the door for new, contemporary audiences to learn more about them.
The celebrity voices are only available for individual streaming via the ElevenLabs Reader app. This means that users can have the celebrity voices read to themselves, but cannot create content to share with others. This restriction is intended to ensure that the use of these voices remains respectful and appropriate.
“Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier are among the most iconic actors in history. We deeply respect their legacies and are honored to have their voices on our platform,” said Dustin Blank, Head of Partnerships at ElevenLabs. “Adding them to our growing roster of speakers is an important step forward in our mission to make content accessible in any language and with any voice.”
