Pocket FM has teamed up with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs to turn scripts into audio series using artificial intelligence (AI) swiftly.
Before raising $103 million in Series D investment in March, the India-based firm had been testing ElevenLabs' text-to-audio technology. In the coming weeks, the extended agreement will make the AI-powered text-to-audio tool available to all artists, as reported by TechCrunch.
During testing, Lightspeed Ventures-financed Pocket FM used ElevenLabs' AI to create 30,000 hours of audio series. By year's end, the business hopes to treble its 100,000-hour content collection with the new rollout. During testing, AI-powered technologies cut audio production expenses by 90 percent.
AI Tool Could Help 200,000 Writers, But Voiceover Artists Express Concern
Pocket FM co-founder and CTO Prateek Dixit said the alliance will help 250,000 writers on their Pocket Novel writing platform create audio series. Authors can produce 30 minutes of high-quality audio daily as AI technology can boost production 10 times.
The platform uses ElevenLabs' technology to give authors 50 voices for content conversion. ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski said their program automatically infers emotions from speech and written context.
However, the faster content development offered by AI-powered technologies raises issues about content quality and its possible impact on voiceover artists, according to the report.
India's Association of Voiceover Artists (AVA) worries that AI might eliminate voiceover artist job positions. Amarinder Singh Sodhi, AVA general secretary, called for AI restrictions to protect their livelihood.
Voiceover artists like Aditya Mattoo worry that AI dilutes stories. AI weakens emotional bonds. Mattoo believes giving premium voices to individuals who cannot generate quality material will flood the market with substandard content.
More Audience Still Prefer Listening to Radio Than Podcasts
Despite the rising popularity of podcasts and music streaming services, the majority of Americans still listen to the radio and more younger consumers listen to on-demand audio content, as per a recent study.
Nielsen and Edison Research found in the first quarter of 2024 that American people listen to almost four hours of audio every day, as reported by Forbes. Radio accounts for 67% of ad-supported listening, followed by podcasts (20%), music streaming (10%), and satellite radio (3%). The research excluded non-ad-supported listening.
Youth, especially 18-34-year-olds, prefer on-demand audio, listening to radio just 45% of the time. This compares to 37% for podcasts and 18% for streaming or satellite radio. Radio takes 74% of listening time for individuals over 35, followed by podcasts at 13%, music streaming at 9%, and satellite radio at 4%.
Jose Briones displays a podcast that he listens to on his Light Phone 2 at his apartment in Littleton, Colorado, on March 24, 2023. JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Images
News and talk radio are the most popular among adults, accounting for 11% of radio consumption. Adult contemporary is 8.6%, classic hits 5.9%, country 5.9%, and sports radio 4.5%.
Radio accounts for 80% of in-car listening, according to the survey.
Statista reported a US digital audio consumption survey conducted in April 2022 that indicated the increasing average daily time spent listening to audio material, reaching one hour and 40 minutes. This figure is projected to rise by five minutes in 2024.
