Amazon Polly VS Google Wavenet Text to Speech
In this post, we talk about and compare Text to Speech voices from the two forerunners. The leading providers of synthetic voices – Amazon and Google. Also, understand how one can get started using these voices for creating audio. Text to speech is a technology that allows computers to speak. You write text and the computer reads it out. Historically, the voices have always sounded very robotic and monotonous which made them generally not suitable for purposes other than for accessibility applications. But this is not the case anymore. The application of Machine Learning to Text-to-speech has transformed the way computers speak. Thus making the voices unbelievably realistic and opening…
Are Audio Articles the next norm in content marketing?
How often do you find an article without the ubiquitous sharing options embedded in it? It would be rather odd if I’m unable to share an article I like. There’s a similar trend that’s been picking up recently. Embedding an audio version of the article, in the article along with its written text. The benefit of doing so is quite obvious. Firstly, you are providing another channel to consume the article which arguably is more convenient than reading. Secondly, It increases the reach, engagement and total time spent. But if providing an audio version is beneficial why are we seeing more and more publishers and bloggers embedding audio just recently?…
How to add audio to your Medium stories using the Play.ht
The Play.ht allows you to create audio files using AI Voices for your blogs, article, stories, and research papers which is compatible with Medium, WordPress, etc. You can simply paste the text or fetch it from an article URL. In this post, we’ll show you how to create an audio version of your Medium story and embed the audio in the Medium story. Audio will help you increase the reach of your blog at the same time also improve the rate of engagement leading to more organic growth, Play.ht allows you to track the growth with our analytics to give you. Step 1. Login to the Play.ht dashboard at https://play.ht/app/…
Can modern AI Voices replace professional voice over actors?
One area of technology that is seeing rapid development is the Text to Speech technology. The four tech giants – Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM along with a lot of other opensource projects are silently competing with each other to create better and more realistic voices. But are the Text to Speech voices replace the professional voice-over actors? Let’s find out. There are four key things one would consider while hiring a voice-over actor: 1. Quality of voice2.Cost3.Delivery time4.Commercial rights Let’s compare these things and understand why we say Text to Speech voices will replace voice over actors. Quality of AI Voice Early AI Voices The early Artificial Intelligence voices…
Can artificial voices be the next tool in a content-marketers toolbelt?
Artificial voices, also known as Synthetic or Text to Speech voices are computer-generated voices that have been around for a long time but have only recently become suitable for end consumers due to significant improvements in their quality. Hence we will be talking about how artificial voices be the next toolbelt in content marketers The application of Machine Learning has created voices that are so realistic, they are almost impossible to distinguish from a human voice, making them useful in a plethora of applications. To show you how real artificial voices have become, listen to these samples that we created – We wonder if these voices can be used to…
Could this be the most realistic Synthetic voice?
One of the technologies that have improved significantly in the last 2-3 years is Speech Synthesis technology, which is the process of generating spoken language by machine on the basis of written input. Thanks to Machine Learning and the openwork by DeepMind – a Google company, Synthetic voices are now capable of mimicking almost all the characteristics of a human voice so much so that they are almost indistinguishable. Amazon is one of the leading providers of Text to Speech technology with their Polly offering. They call it “Lifelike speech”, and they sure are making a great effort to keep up to it. Their latest update is the one called…
How to Create a Podcast (of your articles on Medium.com)
Podcasts today, are a temple where listeners go to learn and grow. Over the years, Podcasts have evolved tremendously and today serve as a hub of seriously engaging content, specially in the Business, Motivation/Life-Coaching and News spaces. But, before we dive into ‘How to create a Podcast’, let’s first retrospect and analyze the ‘Why’… Did you know that Audio (majorly Podcasts and Audio books) today stands as the second highest form of content consumed online? According to recent research, the monthly Podcast listeners have grown from 17% to 32% year over year as of 2018, and are projected to only grow even more in the years to come. If you think…
How to Instantly Turn Your Medium Stories into Audio Podcasts
Did you know that over 2 million articles are written everyday? Yet, only a small fraction of them gain traction and attract readers. What’s even more interesting is the fact that out of the tiny fraction of readers, half of them will read the article for only 15 seconds or even less. On the other hand, Podcasts have been showing a steady rise in engagement. The reason is a little obvious, isn’t it? Podcasts simply offer a richer experience, subconsciously engaging the listener with a continuous stream of audio. And, that’s not the only reason. The truth is, listening is simply more convenient. Whether you are driving to work, going for a jog or…
Increasing user engagement with Text to Speech – Case Study by Play.ht
We analyzed over 5000 articles with Text to Speech audio versions and studied their impact on user engagement. If you look at the user behavior for consuming content over the past few years, audio consumption has grown exponentially. And for good reasons. Audio is easy to consume, effortless to grasp, and information consumed is retained for longer. Also, the convenience of listening over reading. If audio is such a powerful medium, is there a way to apply some of it’s the power to written content? Enter audio articles — the gap between text and audio Simply put, audio articles are audio versions of written articles. They’re a way to transform…
How to Instantly Turn Your WordPress Blog posts into Audio Podcasts
One of the most important things you can do to your content is to make sure it is as accessible as possible. What I mean by that is when users land on one of your blog posts, they are all going to be in different situations, some might be commuting, some walking, some at work, designing, etc. This guide will show you how to turn your WordPress blog posts into audio podcast using Play.ht Dashboard Step 1 – Download the Play.ht WordPress Plugin The first thing you need to do is download and activate the Play.ht plugin for WordPress. You can either search for Play.ht on the plugin store or download…
