Digital transformation can sound like an intimidating term. While digital solutions enable almost every aspect of our society to run more smoothly, the process of changing from embedded approaches to newer, slicker ways of working can feel daunting.
For the publishing sector, they’ve had an interesting and nuanced experience of digital adoption, both from the customer perspective and as a sector delivering digitally-enabled solutions to the process of publishing.
From the customer perspective, adoption of eReaders and the move to more on-screen readings has confounded projections. People have come back to – or never moved away from – the printed, hard-copy book in a similar way to how parts of the recorded music industry have gravitated back to vinyl.
Audiobooks have been an embedded part of the sector since their crossover into the mainstream in the 1970s with the arrival of cheap, widely distributable cassette technology. The UK audiobook market now sits at around £213m in annual spending, with 29m audiobooks sold in the UK in 2023 alone. But the potential growth in the sector is much higher.
Audiobooks brought with them a new revenue stream, new rights, new specialisms within the publishing industry, and new jobs.
As the global business community struggles with the ethical, environmental and comprehension challenge of how and whether to adopt emerging technologies that have been bracketed under the term AI, artificial intelligence, the publishing sector faces a subset of these considerations, specific to their needs and the preferences of their customers.
There is much to be done in terms of tools to bring efficiency to the back-office publishing processes, but for customers one key area of interest is voice technology.
Generative voice technology has now fully emerged to support complex text to speech creation. With a short voice sample, full personalised audiobooks can be created. The process is accurate, reliable, safe and secure. Personalised audiobooks represent a whole new spin on the audiobook, complete with the revenue creation possibilities that the first wave of traditional audiobooks delivered.
Trained voice actors and beloved celebrities bring polish and elegance to the world of audiobooks. Personalised audiobooks weave a more home-spun charm. They are the personal touch, the home-cooked delight you dream about when you’re far from your homely setting, the comfortable slippers that bring more warmth and healing because they were a gift from a treasured relative.
One interesting aspect of the emergence of personalised audiobooks is the sheer breadth of opportunity. Predicting where the sweet spot will emerge is a fascinating topic. There is potential in the multi-language accessibility it brings, but also in the therapeutic value of hearing positive affirmations in your voice or the voice of a trusted friend or adviser. Does this open a powerful new market in the self-help arena?
What is for certain is that the publishing sector finds itself at a crossroads in its consideration of the use and adoption of this and other AI technologies. There are many safe-space activities, such as the emerging world of personalised audiobooks, that should represent a sensible first step for publishers to consider on their journey towards more effective digital enablement.