If you’re still on the fence about converting your text to audio for your published work, you’re missing a sure-way to enhance the user experience.
Publishers, writers, bloggers, and newsletter authors looking to engage with readers and grow their subscription rates or readership must consider audio versions of printed content. There are many reasons why the time is now. We’ve highlighted four reasons why including audio should be a top priority for your publication—no matter where you are in the world.
Reason #1: Audio Narration is a Global Trend
It isn’t just North American audiences that are clamoring for audio content. Globally audio consumption is on the rise. According a report released by Edison Research, in 2019 Australians consumed more than 11 hours of online audio content per week. In Central and South America, publications such as La Noticia and Conexión Migrante, have added the Ad Auris audio tool to their publications, adding instant benefit for their audiences. In South East Asia the publication India Spend has and has seen its audio consumption increase week-over-week since incorporating the Ad Auris audio product to its published content. The same goes for The Haitian TImes. The demand for audio narration is not limited to a few countries or languages. Audiences, the world over, are demanding audio options.
Reason #2: Audio is Convenient
Audio was gaining steam before the pandemic shut everything down. Some pundits thought that audio consumption would fall off as fewer people were commuting, and generally, were less busy with being on the move. In fact, the opposite occurred. Audio proved resilient during the pandemic as people quickly hit ‘screen burnout’ and were seeking ways to consume published content that did not involve more time in front of a screen. There is no denying that audio is a convenient option for many users, whether or not we’re weathering a pandemic.
Reason #3: Audio Narrations can be Monetized
You don’t need us to tell you how squeezed publishers feel by tight budgets. Bloggers, publishers, and authors are continuously looking for creative revenue sources. Subscriptions have proved popular, but not every writer wants to have their work behind a paywall. The good news is that advertising can be integrated into audio narrations with the Google Ad Manager. Offering audio options of your written content is a win-win: it improves the user experience and it can be a revenue source!
Reason #4: Audio Narrations are the Future
It’s not just creators of AI voice-generated tools that are touting text-to-audio products. In 2019, Google launched “Your News Update”, an app that delivers audio news stories. The press release announcing the launce of the new app stated, “At Google, we saw an opportunity to help move digital audio forward by focusing on audio news.” The momentum behind audio news aggregators has gained steam in the years since Google’s launch of its app. Our tech team at Ad Auris is putting the final touches on an aggregator site so that listeners can go to a single source to search for the various publications that use our tool and scan through the trending audio articles.
There are many reasons, beyond the four listed here, that validate the popularity of text-to-audio options. As the technology continues to evolve, the popularity of audio will continue to grow.