Lightspeed Ventures-backed audio platform Pocket FM has announced a strategic partnership with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs to expedite the conversion of text content, such as scripts, into audio series using artificial intelligence. This collaboration aims to enhance the efficiency and scalability of audio content production.
In March, Pocket FM secured $103 million in Series D funding and began experimenting with ElevenLabs’ technology to convert text into audio. Now, the India-based company has expanded this partnership to make the AI-driven conversion tool available to all creators within the next few weeks.
During the test phase, Pocket FM produced 30,000 hours of audio series using ElevenLabs’ AI technology. With the new rollout, the startup anticipates tripling its content library, which currently exceeds 100,000 hours of audio content. The company reported that AI-powered tools have significantly reduced production costs by 90% during the experimental phase.
Prateek Dixit, co-founder and CTO of Pocket FM, highlighted the benefits of the partnership, stating, “We have over 250,000 writers, including those on our Pocket Novel writing platform, and this collaboration reduces the cost and effort of setting up and recording audio for them.” He noted that even with professional recording setups, writers can typically produce only 30 minutes of high-quality audio content per day. With AI tools, this output can increase tenfold.
Pocket FM has integrated ElevenLabs’ technology into a new tool offering 50 voice options for writers. ElevenLabs’ co-founder Mati Staniszewski explained that their tool understands the context and emotional tone of the writing, enhancing the quality of the audio output. “We are deploying our newer models that better understand the genre and emotions of the content,” he said.
Based on user engagement data, Pocket FM plans to recommend voices that perform well in specific genres. This AI-driven approach aims to improve content discovery and quality on the platform. Dixit mentioned, “If a writer publishes an audio series, we surface that content to a select number of users and observe engagement metrics. If these metrics are positive, we further propagate that.”
Pocket FM is not alone in leveraging AI for content creation. Competitor Kuku FM, backed by Google, is also using AI tools like GPT-4 and ElevenLabs to assist writers in refining scripts, generating thumbnails, adding sound effects, and converting text into audio.
However, the rise of AI in voice generation has raised concerns among voiceover artists. India’s Association of Voiceover Artists (AVA) has voiced worries about AI taking over their roles, potentially affecting their livelihoods. Amarinder Singh Sodhi, AVA’s general secretary, emphasized the need for regulation to protect voice artists. Delhi-based voiceover artist Aditya Mattoo expressed fears that AI could dilute the human experience of storytelling and lead to an influx of poor-quality content.
Despite these concerns, Pocket FM has reported that engagement with AI-generated content matches that of human voiceover productions. The company is also working on incorporating multiple voices into single audio outputs. Currently, neither Pocket FM nor Kuku FM labels their content to indicate if AI was used in its creation.
This partnership with ElevenLabs positions Pocket FM to significantly expand its content offerings and reach, marking a significant advancement in the integration of AI in the audio content industry.
