Pocket FM, an audio platform supported by Lightspeed Ventures, has announced a partnership with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs to swiftly convert text content, such as scripts, into audio series using AI.
This collaboration aims to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of audio content creation for a broader audience. In March, Pocket FM secured $103 million in Series D funding and shared with TechCrunch that it was already experimenting with ElevenLabs’ technology to transform text into audio. The India-based company is now expanding this partnership to offer the conversion tool to all creators in the coming weeks.
During the testing 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, within the year. Additionally, Pocket FM reported that the AI-powered tools reduced audio production costs by 90% during the experimental phase.
We have over 250,000 writers (including those on the company’s Pocket Novel writing platform) and this partnership decreases the cost of setting up and recording audio for them. Even with a good set-up of recording tools and equipment, writers can produce roughly 30 minutes of high-quality audio content per day. With the AI tools, this output can be 10 times more.”
Prateek Dixit, co-founder and CTO of Pocket FM
To facilitate this process, Pocket FM has developed a tool integrating ElevenLabs’ technology, offering 50 different voices for writers to use in their content. Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs’ co-founder, highlighted the advanced capabilities of their tool: “Working with Pocket FM, we are deploying our newer models that understand the genre of writing and are emotionality better.” He noted that the tool comprehends the context of the writing and infers emotions through the voice automatically.
Dixit mentioned that the platform also plans to use user engagement data to suggest voices that are well-suited for specific genres, enhancing the overall quality and appeal of the audio content.
Pocket FM is not alone in leveraging AI-powered tools for audio series creation. Google-backed Kuku FM is also utilizing technologies such as GPT-4, Claude, BandLab, and ElevenLabs to assist writers in various stages of content creation, including script refinement, thumbnail generation, sound effects addition, and text-to-audio conversion. Kuku FM further revealed to TechCrunch that it is experimenting with visual generation tools like Midjourney and Runway to create ads related to content.
This move by Pocket FM underscores a growing trend in the audio content industry, where AI and advanced technologies are increasingly being used to streamline production processes and enhance creative possibilities for content creators.
