It increasingly feels like our modern, linked and interconnected world has a paradox of connection at its heart. As more and more tools emerge, channels multiply, and opportunities appear to expand, there is a lingering sense that our families, communities and friendships feel more fragmented than ever. Our overload of connectedness makes us feel more lonely, not less, because attention in stretched thin and meaningful contact is replaced by constant, low-grade noise (aka the infinite scroll).
We know that social connections are important for our health and wellbeing, but navigating today’s cultural and communication landscape is complicated. From a publisher and content creator perspective, the issue becomes sharper: how do we create and disseminate material in ways that reach wider audiences rather than simply yelling into a deafening void that is scrolled past and forgotten?
Part of the issue is that attention is now one of the most contested resources. We are fully within an ‘attention economy’ and as such, audiences are busy, distracted, and increasingly selective about what they give their time to. The conditions for ‘reach’ have also shifted. It is no longer enough to be discoverable, content from publishers must feel relevant, trustworthy, and worth returning to.
At the core of these challenges is improving how we design our products and services.
Personalised audio is just one example of the continuing movement towards designing with people rather than simply for them. And this doesn’t just mean working to be more inclusive, it’s not inclusivity as an add-on. It’s a more comprehensive approach to involving people at every step of the design journey: understanding the context of use, reducing friction for users of all abilities, and building experiences that feel purposeful and not just pretty design (though we do like things to look good too).
Working in this more collaborative way, we can start to build connections that are grounded in elements that are more valuable to us. We need to move past simply making content available to building meaningful and sustainable relationships. In practice, this could involve workshops with different communities, ongoing feedback loops that shape how content is developed and delivered, and the creation of formats that work for people’s own, busy lives.
Personalisation of content can be an important strand of this. In the case of personalised audiobooks, we can create and share stories with important emotional resonance in voices that are important to us. This could be from factual content delivered in the voice of the person who undertook the research, to treasured bedtime stories delivered in the magical tones of a beloved grandparent. It could also include educational or wellbeing content narrated in a familiar voice to support routine-building, language learning, or confidence for reluctant readers. For publishers, this opens up a wider set of value propositions: not just entertainment, but connection, comfort, and continuity.
This type of bespoke, personalised communication can cut through the sea of doubt that characterises our cluttered landscape. Through tailored content that’s carefully crafted to meet personal preferences, we can start to reconnect with those people who feel overwhelmed by noise, paralysed by the weight of choice.
And through this design-led approach, we can start to re-establish networks and connect with new and emerging audiences. Personalised audio can act as a bridge between private and public worlds: a product that travels through families, friend groups, and care settings, carried by emotion and connection.
There is evidence that people are moving away from the routine and daily use of some of the main social media platforms. This has presented a significant challenge to those keen to share content at scale with a previous engaged audience. It also means that publishers and authors need to diversify distribution: leaning into innovative ways to develop reach among your readers, while allowing people to better connect via their favourite books and stories.
More careful consideration now needs to be given to connecting with people on the channels they are choosing. Any strategic approach to communications needs to factor in the stronger desire for personalisation, in preference to broadcast messages on channels that have become echo chambers, havens of trolling, or simply no longer trusted places. In this context, voice can carry a different kind of weight.
Personalised audio presents a new approach to audiobook content – bringing with it a new revenue stream – as well as offering a flexible new tool that could be an attractive way to navigate the field of misinformation and information overload. It will be interesting to see how the service it brings informs better, more tailored communications solutions that suit our needs more accurately in the future.