In recent years, the audiobook market has been growing increasingly popular, becoming a favorite medium for many readers. Storytel Poland, in partnership with ElevenLabs, has decided to take a revolutionary step by introducing an innovative feature called VoiceSwitcher. This tool will allow Polish users to choose a male or female narrator for the book they are listening to, thereby providing a unique and personalized audiobook experience.
Will AI Replace Narrators?
In traditional forms of reading, the content of a book is usually the key element. However, in the case of audiobooks, the voice of the narrator plays an equally important role. Storytel realizes that users have their favorite narrators and even make decisions about choosing new titles based on who narrates a given audiobook. A survey conducted by Storytel showed that as many as 66% of users take the narrator into account when choosing their next title.
Responding to listeners' expectations, Storytel has partnered with ElevenLabs, a specialist in AI-generated voices. The result of this collaboration is the VoiceSwitcher feature, which allows users to choose their preferred voice for a given audiobook. The introduction of this feature is not only a step toward personalizing the listening experience, but also opens up new choices for listeners.
However, Storytel emphasizes that AI narrators will not replace human narrators. The introduction of VoiceSwitcher is rather an expansion of choice. As part of the pilot, 20 titles will appear in Storytel Poland's catalog, each recorded both by a human male or female narrator and by three supplementary AI voices. The listener will be able to choose whether to listen to the traditional recording or use a synthetic narrator. The key goal is to increase diversity and provide users with more options.
Storytel Presents VoiceSwitcher
Will AI Narrators Revolutionize the Audio Market in Poland?
Mikael Holmström, Director of Product at Storytel, emphasizes that Poland will be one of the first markets where the VoiceSwitcher feature will be launched. Thanks to it, Polish users will experience an even more personalized Storytel, and the most interesting stories will reach an even wider audience.
As part of the pilot, Polish AI narrators such as Mateusz, Daniel, Wiktoria, and Amelia recorded 20 titles, which are a mix of Storytel Original content and titles from external publishers. Additionally, ElevenLabs introduced a new AI model for speech synthesis that better understands text and context, which translates into more natural sentence intonation and better emotional expression.
It is also important to note that the introduction of AI narrators does not mean that in the future all favorite male or female narrators will be available to everyone through so-called voice cloning. Storytel and ElevenLabs agree that AI narrators cannot sound like real existing people.
The first 20 titles with the VoiceSwitcher feature are a step toward content personalization in the Storytel app. The ultimate goal is user satisfaction, so the company will actively collect feedback, read comments, and conduct surveys to continuously adapt its service to the needs of its community. VoiceSwitcher is certainly an innovative step that could change the way people use audiobooks, offering them greater influence over how the stories told to them sound.
