“But producing an audiobook with a human voice can take weeks and can cost publishers thousands of dollars.”
Audiobook sales jumped 25 percent to more than $1.5bn, and Apple wants the production side too. It quietly launched books “narrated by digital voice based on a human narrator,” with publishers signing NDAs to join. Apple also blocked Spotify’s audiobook app three times over store rules. Apple wants to own the store, the voice and the rules for anyone selling against it.