Will Kindle pose a threat to professionally recorded voice overs?

It's doubtful that the Kindle's new synthetic voice technology will replace professional narrators, at least in the foreseeable future.

The principal reason why the synthesized voice poses little threat to voice over recordings, particularly long form narration such as audiobooks, is simply because the vocal characteristics and inflections of synthesized voices are predetermined, leaving no room for uniquely creative or intelligently "human" qualities such as making bold choices with regard to context and interpretation with the purpose of enlivening the text.

Synthetic vocal delivery, although executed well to a degree, falls short on a deeper level and as a result will never possess the core capacities that a performer hired to record an individual script would.

Given that Amazon owns Audible, a web service dedicated to selling professionally narrated audiobooks, it would appear they are hedging their bets by promoting and selling the Kindle, playing it safe by having one foot in the attractive and proven audiobook market worth $2 billion (sales grew 150% in just one year and are still on the rise), and one foot in the synthetic voice market for text-to-speech, ultimately saving them money by not having to hire voice talent to narrate.

With the demand for audiobooks skyrocketing, going from about 4,000 produced per year over the past several years, to 24,000 by 2012, Amazon stands to cash in handsomely by covering both ends of the spectrum, regardless of the significant difference in vocal quality.

Comments

Wow! Scarey,,, and the reason why, is because there are
always those employers of talent that will say... "ah, i suppose for this job, the Kindle will do.." And there you go, a job lost. I do agree that for most things.. no , not a problem. But I remember when music loops first hit the market and producers said they would still hire muscians and studios and engineers and bla bla bla,, and guess what.. after awhile they embraced the new technology and now just about anyone can put together a reasonably good sound track for a production using Acid or the like. I had always thought I could do voice over till I dropped dead at 90, but now you have to wonder just how far this technology will go, and how it will impact the VO pros that rely on this work for their livelyhood. Heck David.. I'm having a blast on Voices.com and I'm not moving over for any machine!! Can I get an Amen!?!

Bob Marini

Posted by: Bob Marini
March 5, 2009 11:55 AM

http://www.slate.com/id/2212800/pagenum/all/#p2
great indepth article from Slate.com all about why software will not replace voice actors for the foreseeable future.

Posted by: Hassan
March 5, 2009 1:35 PM

The "voice" of Kindle is sooo poor, no threat to our trade is likely!

Posted by: Steve Crozier
March 6, 2009 12:03 PM

There is no doubt that Kindle 2 is an amazing technology. It provides readers with many new convenient opportunities. As a narrator of audio books, I do not foresee Kindle 2 as a threat to voice talents.

People won’t use it for its ability to read aloud. Although it can read a page of text, it can’t put emotion or character into the read. It knows no difference between a dramatic suspenseful sentence and a math problem. The words aren’t animated, they’re read. That makes a lousy audio book. Listeners do not want to hear statements, they want to believe in what they hear -something a robotic voice just cannot accomplish. No matter how much a computer voice improves over time, nothing will ever beat a true human voice.

The advantages of Kindle 2 are obvious. Kindle 2 may in fact become a hit if readers are willing to make the investment. I see this as a threat to paper and printing companies, but not voice talent.

-Jason