This raises an interesting question around the rights of the author/publisher and who they sold their ebook rights to. If in 3 years we have a perfect AI voice that can read any book as good or better than mid-level narrators, why would you ever buy an audiobook when you could just buy the ebook and pick your voice(s). What a time to be alive
The rise of streaming has made CDs and other offline media obsolete and publishing rights for them largely irrelevant. Audiobooks are likely to face a similar demise. One by one, all the frictions, I mean the colours of life, are fading away, sacrificed for the sake of convenience.
Edit: I think the effect of the invention of vinyl on live performers is more akin to how the commoditisation of HQ TTS will be detrimental to audiobook narrators.
I guess it's the same with other jobs: AI will replace the mid/low quality workers, but the good ones will keep delivering something AI can't.
Two audiobooks that come to my mind:
- The Lord of the Ring series read by Andy Serkis; not only he perfectly switches between each characters voice, but also the feeling of listening "Gollum" for ours is something else altogether
- David Goggins' books; the audiobook version is completely different than the book, since he's not just reading the book, and overall it makes the content easier to digest
