My audio experiment
Podcast listening, by Terry Freedman
On my other blog, I wrote recently about my audio experiment. To save you having to read all the details, the essence is as follows. I think having the option to listen to an article rather than reading it is important. In 2019 I wrote about my experience of listening to books and articles on the Kindle Fire, when the text-to-speech facility has been built in to the document. Indeed, this proved very useful quite recently, when I listened to a book I’d been asked to review. I was able to “read” the last 100 pages while carrying out domestic tasks, so it proved to be a great time-saver.
Anyway, I’ve been trying out an application which lets you create an audio version of an article. Not all the voices are great, but some aren’t bad at all. But you be the judge. Here are the articles on this blog that I have “audio-ised” so far:
Oh, and this one of course!
At the moment, the program is a bit flaky. Also, I’m keeping an eye on the listening statistics. Processing an article involves an extra layer of work. Not much extra effort, but maybe around 10 minutes or so per article. Therefore processing six articles will take at least an hour., so I need to see if it is something readers really want. If the stats indicate otherwise, I’ll have to think about whether or not to continue with the idea.
Still, have a listen to one or two articles and see what you think.