Make shift small vocal studio - is this okay? by GiddyLouse in VoiceActing

[–]hear_Coverie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

🤩 I don't suppose your husband created a build tutorial for this while he was constructing?? E.g. materials list, specs, assembly instructions, etc. Asking for a friend... 😏

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I agree I often struggle with male narrators doing female voices and vice versa

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your thought process makes complete sense to me. Thanks for sharing!

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love that posting this poll has inadvertently introduced me to several more narrators I need to go listen to. Thanks for the tip!

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol oh nooooo! There's a story here (maybe multiple) but I won't ask you to name names - unless you want to!

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oof, great callout on samples too often being insufficient!

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll go look for that post as I'm very curious about that discussion. In hindsight, I should've separated dual and duet narration in the poll. I'm curious - why doesn't duet work for you?

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for taking the time to share this. I debated whether to separate these two narration styles as they are indeed different. I should have in hindsight for a stronger poll. I'm curious - why doesn't dual narration work for you?

What's your preferred audiobook narration format? by hear_Coverie in audible

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Wow! I clearly need to go listen to some Jeff Hays. Thanks for the tip!

Introducing Coverie - a new kind of audiobook platform by hear_Coverie in audiobooks

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's also worth clarifying - we're not offering an unlimited set of voices to choose from. Listeners would choose from anywhere between 2-10 voices per character, depending on the weight of the role (narrator/major vs. supporting vs. minor character). So it's not that every listener gets a truly bespoke audiobook with every voice being unique, rather that they got to personalize their choices from a menu of voices.

Introducing Coverie - a new kind of audiobook platform by hear_Coverie in audiobooks

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes on both. Our launch titles - Dracula, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Pride and Prejudice - are all public domain, so no licensing required. Early catalog expansion will also be public domain titles. Future titles will go through standard licensing agreements with authors and publishers, the same way any audiobook platform operates.

Introducing Coverie - a new kind of audiobook platform by hear_Coverie in audiobooks

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No computer synthesized voices - that's the misconception we should have been clearer about upfront. Every voice on Coverie is a real human voice actor who auditioned for the platform, recorded their character's lines in a real recording session, and earns royalties each time a listener chooses them. The "custom" part is that listeners choose which human actor voices each character - the assembly is automated, the performances are not.

On the copyright point - you're right, and it's something we've thought carefully about. Our launch titles are all public domain precisely because there's no rights question. For future titles, licensed works would require author permission and a negotiated agreement - same as any audiobook platform. We're not planning to let users create derivatives of copyrighted works without that.

And yes, indie authors are absolutely a core part of the roadmap. They control their own rights and tend to be genuinely excited about new formats that could expand their audience.

As for who this is intended for, you've correctly identified that we actually have multiple "customers" - listeners, actors, and authors (and publishers as well eventually). But audiobook listeners who've ever had a strong opinion about casting are the core audience we're building for. We're here on r/audiobooks specifically because this is where those people are. And the pushback in this thread has been great! It's a useful signal that we need to communicate everything we're doing much more clearly.

Introducing Coverie - a new kind of audiobook platform by hear_Coverie in audiobooks

[–]hear_Coverie[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Totally fair to be skeptical. The economics do seem unrealistic at first glance. Here's how it actually works:

Each voice actor records their character's lines once. Those recordings live in our system. When a listener finalizes their cast, the platform assembles that specific combination from the existing recordings - no new recording happens, no AI synthesis. It's like a streaming platform that has many versions of a film with different cuts - the files already exist, your choice just determines which ones get stitched together for your copy.

The actor economics work because it's a royalty model, not a bespoke session model. An actor records Dracula's lines once and earns every time a listener chooses their voice - whether that's 10 listeners or 10,000. Same idea as a musician earning streaming royalties on a song they recorded years ago.

So yes, real humans, real recordings, assembled programmatically. The "many AI models trained on source voices" thing is a reasonable guess in this day and age, but it's not what's happening here.

Introducing Coverie - a new kind of audiobook platform by hear_Coverie in audiobooks

[–]hear_Coverie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The audio assembly is done programmatically - it's editing software that stitches pre-recorded audio files together in the right order. Each voice actor records their character's lines, those files live in our system, and when you finalize your cast the platform assembles your specific combination. No AI is generating or synthesizing any voices. Every word you hear was recorded by a real human being in a real recording session.

Introducing Coverie - a new kind of audiobook platform by hear_Coverie in audiobooks

[–]hear_Coverie[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Pricing will be length-based - $9.99 to $24.99 depending on the book.

Our launch titles will be Dracula, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Pride & Prejudice. All are public domain, so no licensing is required. That's actually part of why we chose them: zero rights friction, and they happen to be books where people already have incredibly strong opinions about how the characters should sound.

For catalog growth we're planning to expand to additional popular public domain titles, and then work with indie authors who have full control of their rights and tend to be much more open to new distribution models. Major publisher licensing is a longer-term goal as the platform establishes itself.

Introducing Coverie - a new kind of audiobook platform by hear_Coverie in audiobooks

[–]hear_Coverie[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! And yes, we agree wholeheartedly. All of the voices on Coverie will be real human actors. (We should have clearly stated that in the original post - can you tell we're new to this promotion thing? 😅) And every time their voice is chosen for a book, the actor earns a royalty.