HarperCollins Partners with AI Software Company to Enhance Audiobook Narration Experience

HarperCollins and ElevenLabs have joined forces to leverage ElevenLabs' cutting-edge synthetic speech technology for the enhancement of HarperCollins' audiobook offerings. With ElevenLabs’ innovative text-to-speech Project platform, the publishing giant is set to expand its catalog into non-English language audiobooks, significantly broadening accessibility for global audiences. This advanced technology allows the creation of an entire audiobook in just one hour, streamlining the production process.

HarperCollins has the ability to choose unique, customized voices to narrate its books. This includes adjustments for pause lengths and the option to assign specific passages to different speakers, enabling a tailored listening experience for users. ElevenLabs emphasizes that platforms like Project will not only enhance the richness of audiobook content but also drive down production costs.

Mati Staniszewski, CEO of ElevenLabs, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership: “We’re thrilled to collaborate with HarperCollins, and we believe our technology will enable even more titles from their incredible catalog to be transformed into engaging audiobooks. Without the support of AI, the scale and variety of this initiative would be unachievable. Now, every author has the opportunity to see their work realized in audio format, offering readers increased choice and dismantling linguistic barriers to content.”

Importantly, this synthetic voice tool is intended to be complementary, not a replacement, for traditional voice actors. HarperCollins aims to enhance their audiobook productions by integrating AI capabilities alongside talented voice artists, preserving the creativity and emotive quality that professional narrators bring to the storytelling experience.

Based in New York, ElevenLabs provides an array of services enabling users to produce natural-sounding AI voices suitable for various content creation needs, including marketing materials. Their technology is already proven, as demonstrated with audiobook streaming service Storytel, which utilizes ElevenLabs’ VoiceSwitcher feature to allow listeners to switch between different AI narrators seamlessly.

Beyond the realm of audiobooks, ElevenLabs' synthetic voices have found applications in hardware, such as the Rabbit R1 device, giving users interactive audio responses to their queries.

However, the emergence of such powerful technology has not come without controversy. Earlier this year, ElevenLabs faced scrutiny when its voice cloning capabilities were misused to create deceptive audio of President Biden, aimed at misleading voters in New Hampshire ahead of the primary elections. In response to this incident, ElevenLabs took immediate action by suspending the account associated with the deepfake and implementing measures to prevent the misuse of their technology for creating unauthorized audio messages.

Through this collaboration and continued innovation, ElevenLabs and HarperCollins are paving the way for an exciting future in audiobook production, fostering broader access to literature while maintaining ethical standards in technology use.