The same AI tools that make the podcast market so exciting are of course also applicable to audiobooks, and we can be certain AI will transform the audio market over the coming decade.

Some eyebrows were raised at the recent US Audio Publishers Association debate on global audio when TNPS offered a conservative 2030 forecast for the global podcast market at $12 billion.

But what we were critically factoring in were a) an additional 3.5 billion people online, b) truly global markets driven by affordable unlimited subscription and the erosion of counterproductive territorial rights restrictions, and c) production costs being slashed by AI.

At which point enter, stage left, Podcastle, a produce-and-publish podcasting platform that focuses on using AI to work its magic across podcasting’s many production elements. Among said features being (quoting Tech Crunch):

Easy-to-use tools for podcast creators such as enabling studio-quality remote interviews using consumer-grade mics, multi-track recording and editing, and the ability to isolate the speech in the podcasts and improve it. It can also convert text to speech and vice-versa allowing creators to edit their audio like text documents.

Of such splendid potential is the future of audio made – be it audiobooks, podcasts or whatever form the next incarnations may take.

Podcastle already has 150,000 creators on board, and expects that to rise dramatically. As Tech Crunch notes, the creator economy is valued at as much as $104 billion right now.

The same AI tools that make the podcast market so exciting are of course also applicable to audiobooks, and we can be certain AI will transform the audio market over the coming decade.