After a conversation with SAG-AFTRA, audiobook creation service Findaway Voices has agreed to “halt” licensing audiobook files to Apple for AI learning, Writer Beware reports. Writers noticed a clause in their Findaway Voices contract that stipulates that Apple can use their work “for machine learning training and models”–without paying for the license–unless the author opts out. The discovery ties into far-reaching questions about generative AI, including how–or even if–tech companies acquire permissions to use content, inaccuracies in AI output, and the creators that AI services may displace. As a third-party license, it also may be in conflict with authors’ distribution […]
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Storytel Gains 22 Percent in 2022, Suspends Guidance
Swedish streaming company Storytel released their official year-end earnings report after a brief quarterly update in January, with net sales up 22 percent in 2022 to SEK3.2 billion ($293 million), due to the acquisition of Audiobooks.com, organic growth, and positive foreign exchange. Operating loss was SEK(389) million compared to SEK(350) million last year. The company said that expenses in the period include the purchase of Audiobooks.com, a strategic shift and reorganization in the beginning of the year “to focus on profitable growth”, and an SEK8.3 million severance payment to former ceo Jonas Tellander. EBITDA was SEK(56.5) million. In personnel news, […]
Audio: Obamas to Audible; Playaway to PRH
Audible will release taped conversations from Michelle Obama’s THE LIGHT WE CARRY tour as an eight-episode podcast. Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast will air weekly, starting on March 7, and available exclusively on Audible for two weeks before opening up to other streaming platforms. This marks the first release after the Obamas’ Higher Ground productions moved from Spotify to Audible last year. A press release notes that it is an “exclusive, worldwide, multi-project, multi-year first-look production deal between Audible and Higher Ground.” “After the remarkable reception to The Michelle Obama Podcast [produced by Spotify], we’re excited to bring listeners more […]
Audio: Google Play Books Partners With Bookwire on AI-Narrated Audiobooks
Google Play Books has partnered with digital book company Bookwire on AI-created audiobooks in English, Spanish, German, French and Brazilian Portuguese books. Bookwire’s audiobook service WAY (We Audiobook You) allows Google Play Books customers to “create auto-narrated audiobooks within the framework of the WAY service and, as usual, takes over the complete production and quality assurance of these audiobooks.” They write in a release that the service is not intended to replace human narrators, “but as an addition to Bookwire’s audiobook production offering.” Solveij Krause, team lead business development audio at Bookwire, said, “We are happy that in cooperation with […]
Storytel Q4 Sales Meet Forecast
Swedish audio streamer and publisher Storytel released a brief fourth quarter earnings update, with sales of SEK742 million ($69.2 million), up 22 percent and in line with expectations of SEK 735-745 million. For the year, sales were up 31 percent excluding Russia, where the company stopped doing business in September. In the Nordic segment, sales were SEK498 million, up SEK39 million from 2021. Within non-Nordic countries, sales were SEK 244 million, up SEK98 million. Paid subscribers continue to grow in both segments: up 84,000 in the Nordics and 167,000 subscribers in non-Nordics. CEO Johannes Larcher said, “Our performance in Q4 […]
Audio: Apple Books Adds Digital Narration; RBmedia Acquisitions
Apple Books has launched digital narration for English language audiobooks, beginning with select fiction and romance titles, focused on self-published authors and small publishers. The new initiative produces AI-narrated audiobooks out of ebooks in the Apple Books library. Authors/publishers retain audio rights and can still produce and distribute other audio versions of the book as well. Prospective titles must be nominated and will be evaluated based on “file quality, content compatibility (no complex formatting elements, and limited foreign language words and phrases), and editorial review.” If titles are not immediately approved, they will remain eligible for future approval. Release date, […]