Amazon Backs Off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle

By Brad Stone

Amazon announced today that it would let publishers decide whether they want the new Kindle e-book device to read their books aloud.

The text-to-speech feature allows Kindle owners to have books read to them in a male or female computerized voice. The president of the Authors Guild, Roy Blount Jr., recently contributed an essay to the editorial page of The New York Times laying out the guild’s objections to the feature, which he said undermined the market for the professional audio books that are sold separately.

Amazon maintains that the feature is legal and that it would in fact increase the market for audio books.

But it said, “We strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.”

Here is the full text of Amazon’s statement:

Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given. Furthermore, we ourselves are a major participant in the professionally narrated audiobooks business through our subsidiaries Audible and Brilliance. We believe text-to-speech will introduce new customers to the convenience of listening to books and thereby grow the professionally narrated audiobooks business.

Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.

Therefore, we are modifying our systems so that rights holders can decide on a title by title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title. We have already begun to work on the technical changes required to give authors and publishers that choice. With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled. We believe many will decide that it is.

Customers tell us that with Kindle, they read more, and buy more books. We are passionate about bringing the benefits of modern technology to long-form reading.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Jeff February 27, 2009 · 7:23 pm

Way to go Amazon…was a gutless cop out. No spine at all.

david February 27, 2009 · 7:35 pm

I guess it’s good that amazon is listening to publishers, but what will they be doing for those of us who purchased a $360 device with that feature as part of the justification?

Steven Fisher February 27, 2009 · 7:43 pm

This is a compromise that will help no one. A better outcome would have been to have the feature always on if the person was registered blind or something to that effect, and to enable it at the publisher’s choice otherwise.

brett February 27, 2009 · 8:00 pm

Wow. I would have expected a lot more spine out of Amazon. They are big enough now to throw their weight around, like Apple does with the music companies. The publishers need Amazon more than Amazon needs them — there is a lot of disintermediation that still could occur in the publishing business. Who needs publishers when authors could deal directly with Amazon for Kindle versions, cut out the middleman, and make a whole lot more money?

Phil February 27, 2009 · 8:05 pm

So you buy the $360 Kindle and then buy a $10 book to read on that device, but the publisher gets to selectively decide to restrict how you can consume content you’ve purchased on a device you’ve purchased.

Amazon should be ashamed of itself, and its “the feature is legal but you may not be able to use it all the time” statement is especially galling

Joshua Louis February 27, 2009 · 8:08 pm

One detail notable absent from Amazon’s statement has been how they will implement the rightsholders’ ability to have the text-to-speech enabled or disabled. Will all titles continue to default to having this available, with the authors/publishers being given the option to opt out of participation, and having the ability disabled on a title-by-title basis?

Whether the titles will default to having it turned on or turned off will make a world of difference in how much of an impact this policy change will have…

Daniel Tunkelang February 27, 2009 · 8:12 pm

I understand that Amazon may have decided not to antagonize the Authors’ Guild, but their capitulation does set an unfortunate precedent.

//thenoisychannel.com/2009/02/25/do-speech-to-text-readers-need-to-license-peformance-rights/

ken baltimore February 27, 2009 · 8:19 pm

the downloads at $10.00 a pop is the scam. oh yeah, on top of the $360.00 purchase price. an attractive arrangement maybe if I am on “lost” island with a credit card, a kindle and a limited dharma initiative library.

Alan February 27, 2009 · 8:22 pm

Gee, I wonder if you can read a book to your kid!

AH2 February 27, 2009 · 8:28 pm

Here we go again an old industry mindlessly trying to protect its turf when it is impossible to do so – rather than embracing the new. Planet Earth to publishers. Text to speech is about to become ubiquitous. The very small sale of audio versions of most books isn’t even something worth worrying about.

Instead of FIGHTING Amazon the publishers should be telling Jeff Bezos CAN’T YOU MAKE THOSE VOICES MORE HUMAN AND APPEALING so you can sell even more books for us on Kindle.

Rather the publishers in fact are really not attacking the audio as much as generally attacking the very existence of the KIndle and electronic book formats hopelessly trying to protect their franchise.

It’s over publishers. Wake up. Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed !

David February 27, 2009 · 8:29 pm

Amazon’s cowardly stand puts publishers ahead of customers. Not surprising given their business model, but still disappointing. Google has done a better job of putting users first.

Brian February 27, 2009 · 8:33 pm

This really bothers me- I just received a new Kindle 2 today, one of the main selling points was this feature- and now this “about face”… way to have my back, Amazon! I have been a long-time listener to audible, and for the life of me can’t understand what the objection is. For years I have either purchased the hard copy book or the recorded version- I have never purchased both. What difference does it make if I read it, or have the computer read it to me? I will continue the same practice- I will either purchase the Kindle version or the audible version. How is that costing the publisher or author money? What also confuses me is, with all the publicity of the new features, why is this just coming up now? Seems like someone didn’t do their research. Didn’t publishers have the opportunity to speak up in the development stage? At any rate, I truly feel Amazon is just bowing to the guild, and that very well might be enough cause for me to return this Kindle.

Nigel February 27, 2009 · 8:43 pm

“rights holders will be more comfortable … if they are in the driver’s seat.”

That’s what the Kindle is all about. Turning the experience of the book into something akin to going to the movies, where the reader is just buying a temporary license to experience the product at the whim of the rights holder. But to be fair, human nature requires that electronic distribution schemes like Kindle be completely locked down and the reader completely out of the driver’s seat. Hope they keep printing paper books for another 40 years, or until I succumb top dementia, whichever comes first.

Bert February 27, 2009 · 8:48 pm

Information wants to be free, but authors and readers need to be paid. Amazon did the right thing. Why should a publisher give up the right to own the oral version of their book for free?

Corey February 27, 2009 · 8:48 pm

This would be an example of why you should avoid any product that operates on closed proprietary software.

Amazon are you listening? Open source the Kindle operating system and problems like these will go away.

Robert G February 27, 2009 · 8:52 pm

In this present economy, delivering VALUE is paramount. This hurts publishers AND Amazon. The general public will opt to buy books while the more saavy public will download audiobooks via bittorrent.

michael February 27, 2009 · 8:56 pm

how long until amazon is publishing books straight from the author, bypassing the publishing houses entirely? this is the end of publishing as we know it. thankfully, writing itself should flourish, especially as other companies enter the ebook market with competitive devices akin to the kindle.

tim February 27, 2009 · 9:11 pm

You can download thousands of free classic books in mobipocket format (.prc) from various sources and have them read to you all you want. You’re wasting your time with most of the stuff on the NYT bestsellers list anyway. And who the hell wants to read Roy Blount?

JT February 27, 2009 · 9:17 pm

This is a very smart move by Amazon. It’s crucial for them to get maximum adoption by readers and rights holders that they avoid any conflicts. It’s a tricky balancing act between publishers’ interests and readers’ interests, but they’re clearly working to be a key channel for publishers to reach their readers and a broad source of content for readers.

With so many other digital distributors trying to claim all the value for themselves, it’s refreshing to see Amazon join Apple with a business model that can work for both content providers and consumers. Too late for the Rocky Mountain News, alas…

Stay tuned for Kindle vs iPhone!!

JT February 27, 2009 · 9:19 pm

PS – My Kindle 2 arrived in the mail this afternoon, so I’m bummed about the voice feature being turned off, even if I appreciate the strategic rationale.

Jon February 27, 2009 · 9:31 pm

I think this is really unfortunate. It’s a bad precedent that will only hurt them in the future.

Mark February 27, 2009 · 9:32 pm

I think the authors are quite selfish and silly on the audio rights thing. Computer voice competition for audio books, give me a break.

I am getting tired of the ownership rights issue. If the authors let my kindle read the book I want to buy, I will not buy the book at all.

Stu February 27, 2009 · 9:36 pm

II received my Kindle2 yesterday and I am thrilled with it.
I wanted a device that would allow me to travel with my library in one hand and I have gotten that.
I now see that I can easily add my own documents andhaving a full travel itinerary at hand is a neat feature for me.. While I might add some of my own MP3 music, Bach, Mozart and the rest of the boys, I found the reading somewhat distracting.
I am an avid user of Audio books on my Ipod and would never consider the Kindle2 as the platform to use for listening to books.
If Amazon wants to do something for us new Kindle2 users they should consider adding back the memory card slot.

mf February 27, 2009 · 9:40 pm

“Customers tell us that with Kindle, they read more, and buy more books.”

Hate to tell you, but listening isn’t reading.

TCRNY February 27, 2009 · 9:47 pm

Do I get a partial refund on my new Kindle 2?