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So the author's guild is upset that the Kindle has a read aloud feature that does text to voice using a computer generated voice. Amazon isn't buying the audio
by brandnewlow 18y ago
So the author's guild is upset that the Kindle has a read aloud feature that does text to voice using a computer generated voice. Amazon isn't buying the audio rights to these books like someone who does a book on tape.
Amazon's response:
"An Amazon spokesman noted the text-reading feature depends on text-to-speech technology, and that listeners won't confuse it with the audiobook experience. Amazon owns Audible, a leading audiobook provider."
This is hilariously disingenuous. Of course they won't CONFUSE it as an audiobook experience...Amazon's hoping they'll EMBRACE it as something cheaper and "good enough."
The Author's guild and the content creators they represent will get screwed some more and Amazon's market share will grow. It's like the newspapers letting Google "spider" their content (aka, copy it and use it for their own purposes for free).
- tptacek 18y agoThere is no parallel universe in which computer-generated text-to-speech compares with a real audiobook. The Authors Guild should pick their battles more carefully, because nobody is going to care about this stupid feature.
- brandnewlow 18y agoI haven't heard this new computer-generated voice, but surely Amazon's going to iterate and iterate and iterate until it's "good enough" to disrupt the audio book market.
- tptacek 18y agoThey'd stand just as good a chance taking sheet music and lyrics and iterating and iterating and iterating until it's good enough to disrupt Warner Music Group.
- brandnewlow 18y agoWell, consider bands and production houses that use MIDI recreations of well-known music instead of purchasing the rights to the actual recordings. It's not good enough for most uses, but for some, it certainly is.