Spoken V1.05 Release Notes: Pay When Perfect and Chapter-by-Chapter Publishing are here!

This release marks a turning point for Spoken and for the audiobook creation landscape. Version 1.05 removes barriers, simplifies pricing, and gives authors complete freedom to experiment, perfect, and publish their work on their own terms.

Paywall Revolution — Create First, Pay Last

We’ve completely redesigned when payment occurs inside Spoken Studio.
Until now, authors had to pay before generating narration. That changes today with our Pay When Perfect Pricing.

You can now narrate, re-narrate, and listen to your full project before paying anything.
Payment only happens at the final publishing step—after you’re satisfied with your audiobook and ready to release it.

This is a fundamental shift for Spoken, and for the entire AI audio industry – and publishing industry at large. It restores creative freedom to where it belongs: in the hands of the author.

Farewell to Narration Credits — Welcome Prix Fixe Audiobooks

We surveyed our users, and the results were clear: Have a fixed price for the finished project, even if it costs more. As a result, the credit system is now gone. Pricing is now simple, fixed, and fully transparent.

Tier - Price per 5,000 words - Includes

Subscribers - $10 - Unlimited Narration and Re-Narration

Non-Subscribers - $20 - Unlimited Narration and Re-Narration

Every creative change—voice swaps, force re-narrations, speed adjustments, emotion refinements—is included
You only pay once, when you publish. The price you see when you start is the price you’ll pay when you finish.

No tokens. No hidden costs. No games.

Chapter-by-Chapter Publishing

Authors can now publish individual chapters directly from Studio.

This new flexibility is ideal for:

• Serialized and episodic storytelling

• Updating or exporting select chapters

• Staying focused on one section at a time

You only pay for the word count of the chapters you choose to publish. The result is a workflow that supports precision, iteration, and momentum.

Chapter-by-Chapter Narration

Spoken Studio now operates at the chapter level — authors narrate and refine one chapter at a time, rather than generating narration for the entire project at once.

This shift is designed to empower authors and elevate quality. By focusing on a single chapter per session, you can thoroughly proof your work, ensuring every scene, every line, and every delivery feels perfect before moving forward.

If you’re not satisfied with elements such as voice casting or pacing, you can make those changes early on — before they carry across the rest of your audiobook. This fine-tuned control gives serious self-publishing authors the creative precision and strategic flexibility they need to reach a pitch-perfect final result.

In short: chapter-by-chapter narration keeps you in flow, in control, and fully equipped to craft a truly professional audiobook experience.

Expanded Voice Library

We’ve added a diverse and powerful new collection of professional voice actors to the Spoken Library. Each voice is carefully curated, and each actor is paid every time their voice is used.

Our expanding catalog continues to set the standard for quality, representation, and fairness in AI-assisted narration.

Performance Improvements and Bug Fixes

• Fixed MP3 upload errors—large audio files now upload reliably.

• Enhanced performance for padding, volume, and timing adjustments.

• General stability improvements across Studio playback and editing.

Summary

Spoken v1.05 delivers one clear message:
Create freely. Edit endlessly. Pay only when it’s perfect.

Spoken V1.04 Release Notes: API Power, Future-Ready Infrastructure and Full Freedom with Distribution

We’re excited to announce the release of Spoken V1.04 — a major step forward in making scalable audiobook production faster, simpler, and more powerful. Whether you’re a publisher, a distributor, or a platform expanding your creative ecosystem, this update opens new possibilities for integrating Spoken into your workflow.

Spoken Studio API — Powering the Next Generation of Audiobook Workflows

With V1.04, Spoken’s Studio API is now available to all partners — transforming audiobook creation into a fully programmable, scalable service. Built for developers, publishers, and distribution platforms, the API gives you complete control over project creation, narration, and delivery, directly from your own applications and workflows.

Full Programmatic Control

• Authenticate instantly with a clientId and secretKey, and start building projects within seconds.

• Pass in your own externalProjectId to link Spoken projects to your existing systems and pipelines.

• Automate audiobook creation from manuscript submission and voice casting to narration and audio retrieval.

Easy Integration into Existing Platforms

• Seamlessly embed Spoken into your publishing tools, author platforms, or distribution services using our "Easy Peasy" Parameterized URL approach, allowing your authors to maintain their control of the quality of their work.

• Create, manage, and deliver projects dynamically through simple, secure endpoints.

• Eliminate manual steps, reduce time-to-market, and scale output with far less engineering overhead.

Scalable by Design

• Power workflows ranging from quick demos to full enterprise-grade audiobook pipelines.

• Produce titles programmatically with the same speed and simplicity as a single project.

• Integrate narration, installment delivery, and audio export directly into your own applications.

Spoken’s Studio API is now the strongest tool in your publishing toolkit — built to turn audio production into a fast, flexible, and deeply integrated part of your ecosystem.

Explore the documentation and get started: API.Spoken.press

CI/CD Deployment and Infrastructure Upgrade

We’ve completely overhauled our backend deployment system to make Spoken faster, more reliable, and future-ready.

• New Production Environment: A robust new setup designed for growth.

• Improved Scalability: Optimized resource handling for large-scale workloads.

• Faster Releases: Updates now ship more smoothly and reach users quicker.

• Better Reliability: Reduced downtime and more consistent performance.

If terms like "CI/CD," "Kubernetes," "Pods," and "Replicas" mean something to you, you’ll appreciate the depth of these changes. If not, simply know that everything under the hood is now more efficient, stable, and built for success. 

Updated Terms of Service

Please see our updated Terms of Service. We’ve removed all constraints on distribution. Spoken is built to empower authors with both creative and publishing control.

Riding the NINC Wave

In every interesting story, there’s something that propels the plot forward – an event that challenges or inspires. As authors and readers, we all anticipate the energy, the excitement surrounding the shift, the pivotal moment. For the Spoken story, that pivotal moment is NOW. And we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you!

This wave of momentum has been building for the last six months. In March, we attended the Writer MBA conference, where curious (and often hesitant) authors were interested in dipping their toes into the waters of digital narration. As we focused on Studio improvements over the summer and launched our V1 publicly in August, we could feel the momentum tugging, propelling us forward. Spotify’s acceptance of Spoken-created work was one catalyst. Growing interest from industry partners was another. Our advocacy efforts for digital narration were paying off, and momentum was building.

The Tipping Point for Authors

Our experience at the Novelists, Inc. (NINC) conference proved that we are finally at that tipping point. Right there along the sandy shores of St. Petersburg, Florida, where hundreds of established independent authors gathered to learn how to propel their businesses forward, we received the confirmation …

They’re eager and ready to dive head-on into the digital narration waters with us. And we’re ready to welcome them!

Phil Marshall and Stacy Smith Rogers welcomed hundreds of authors into the Spoken story at Novelists, Inc.

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We’ve been reflecting on what we experienced at NINC and processing on the feedback and valuable insights, including these five key takeaways:

Indie authors want to offer narrated versions of their work, but most can’t justify the cost.

Many who have invested in studio-recorded narrations (around $3,000–$5,000 each) are struggling to earn that money back. In fact, we estimate that only about 20 percent actually profit from their audiobooks.

Authors at NINC have an average of 50 backlist titles that have never been made into audio.

Operating at a financial loss to give readers what they crave just isn’t feasible. One author I spoke with is $10,000 in debt from audiobooks. With 100 books on her backlist, she simply can’t afford to continue narrating traditionally.

An author at the audiobook roundtable put it best:

“When I heard a sample of Spoken, it reminded me of digital photography. We all rejected it at the time, but do any of you still shoot on film?” 

Beyond cost savings, authors are excited by what’s possible with Spoken.

While financial reasoning was a shared perspective, there was enthusiasm for what’s possible with Spoken, beyond the cost-savings. After listening to this short example and the first chapter of Taming the Perilous Skies, they didn’t say it was merely acceptable, tolerable, or listenable. They were genuinely excited and intrigued by the rich listener experience and features previously unattainable to them, including multi-voice, duet, and personal voice narration.

Authors still have concerns about unethical AI practices and care deeply about voice actors (and we do too).

Understanding how Spoken operates and that voice actors are compensated for their cloned voices has helped our authors feel more comfortable.

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Equally enlightening were our connections with industry partners, influenced by several of our users bending their ears. Thank you. Your voices at these conferences have much greater impact than ours ever could. 

With prospective integrations of Spoken Studio and the powerhouse reach of the businesses we’re partnering with, an undercurrent of broader acceptance and accessibility to widespread AI audiobook publishing is building.

It’s an exciting time here at Spoken. Thanks for riding the waves of momentum with us!