Ryan Hoover@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
I've heard rumors Medium was exploring the podcast space and while this isn't podcasting, it's in the audio space. I like this move, and makes it easier to justify paying $5/mo for a Medium Membership (which launched a few months ago) when people are so conditioned to read news/articles for free. Note: 8 months ago some clever guys hacked together a Chrome… See more
Graham Gnall@ggnall · Product Manager - Bluecore
@rrhoover is it read by a humon or text-to-speech?
Ryan Hoover@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@ggnall humans. Text-to-speech (as the Play chrome extension supports) is too robotic. Professional readers imbue personality and engage the listener much more.
Nitin Alabur@nitinalabur · I make iPhone apps
@rrhoover I miss Umano even now! Hoping MAS sticks around for ever!
Graham Gnall@ggnall · Product Manager - Bluecore
@rrhoover nice. Totally agree. Couldn't stand as a premium feature otherwise.
Robin Raszka@robinraszka · Founder @beamtalk
@ggnall @rrhoover TTS
Nima Gardideh@ngardideh · Suto
@rrhoover @ggnall TTS is starting to become pretty close to passable: https://google.github.io/tacotron/
Nick Barrett@nickbarrett · Anayltics
@rrhoover I miss Umano. What did Dropbox ever do with that service?
Mark Moriarty@mbym · podcasts
@rrhoover @ggnall right, I wish Umano could have lived on instead of being shut down! It was a promising app with good folks behind it. Excited to see companies like SpokenLayer (a network of human readers) addressing the same need in a different way through its partners. I agree robot voices are too robotic now. I'm surprised Pocket has held out with it's r… See more
Evan Zhou@evanczhou · Co-Founder, STEEZY
@rrhoover Audible's Channels section has some awesome Umano-like human read articles, but also creating their own audio originals
Will Mayo@wrmayo · CEO, SpokenLayer.com
@mbym @rrhoover @ggnall thanks for the SpokenLayer shout out, we feel the same way around how important the human element is to storytelling. It's awesome to be working with Medium and to be bringing their content alive with human audio!
Avadh B.S. Dwivedi@avadhbsd · Designer
@rrhoover oh man, you are like Google for products. I love that when someone tells you about a new idea they were working hard on and then you throw like 10 names of existing or dead products that did similar stuff and then you also tell which one fought well and which one died and the most probable reasons behind. I love sunflowers!
Ilan Peer@ilan_peer · www
@ngardideh did you hear lyrebird.ai attempt? https://soundcloud.com/user-5356...
Nima Gardideh@ngardideh · Suto
@ilan_peer Lyrebird is focused on style transfer (converting existing audio and changing the voice). State of the art of voice style transfer is still choppy. But getting there!
Nick Horsthuis@horsthuis
Soon you could be hearing you read it back to yourself. Would be cool if you could highlight sections to review in the text or listen to later.
Ferit T.@fokusman · Frontend Techie
This really creates some value to the membership. I'm currently a member because I believe that news & advertisement are contra-productive. The latest App Store update also says that "members can now listen audio versions of every member-only post"
Gavin@gavindinubilo · I write code, also Jam API, and Songfari
This is great! This is what I envisioned long-term for https://www.producthunt.com/post... (RIP) to be, but didn't have the funds to support the idea. I'm super glad to see Medium have built it!
Enrique Benitez@bntzio · 🦄 full-stack dev & growth hacker
Omg. I love Medium. Good job!
Rob Breeds@rob_breeds · UX Designer
How can I try it? I'm not going to subscribe if I can't hear what the quality's like!
Kunal Bhatia@kunalslab · Co-founder & Design Lead @SlidesUp
Audio Stories are a great addition for members. 🙌 I wonder what the process is for selecting stories to make audio versions of. 🤔
Arun Sathiya@arunsathiya · Product marketing Freshdesk | Strikebuys
Beats the logic that one should be allowed to try this once before subscribing to Medium membership.
Chris Messina@chrismessina · 🏆 PH Community Member of the Year!
How soon before this content is available on Alexa-enabled devices?
Manu Geitner@manu_geitner · Director Product, gutefrage.net
@chrismessina As far as I know there is no availability to create alexa skills that allow third party voice to be delivered to the consumer. any other knowledge about that? cheers.
Yoav Yechiam@yoavyy · Product Expert
I'm actually rather happy with TTS used by Pocket to read out my saved articles. I listen at almost X2 speed and I find it to be an excellent use of my 'dead' commuting time. I'm kind of addicted ;-) I actually save most of my articles from Medium (which plays very nice with Pocket).
Christian Brink@christian_brink1
Awesome. Some similarities to Audm (https://www.producthunt.com/post...), though Audm is specifically about longform journalism.
Robert T. Maisano@robert_maisano · Editor of the Monthly Dispatch 😊
This is really cool. Does the writer of an article make a voice file too? Or is the voice recording done by someone at Medium?
kt@ktzhu · product and engineering at medium
@robert_maisano Thanks! We have some narrations that writers record themselves, and then other ones we get professional voice actors and actresses to voice
Robert T. Maisano@robert_maisano · Editor of the Monthly Dispatch 😊
@ktzhu that's awesome. Thank you
Kartik Parija@kartikparija · Cofounder @AdoriLabs, Reimagining Audio
@ktzhu This is absolutely wonderful. Congrats. We need to show you something we are building that you should find very interesting. Have gotten an intro to Monica & EV, and will reach out soon. But would love to get you in the loop right from the beginning. We love Product/Engineering folks, given that's what we are. Do let me know. Cheers.
Alexandre Mouriec@mrcalexandre · Associate @ Argos VR | Writer @ Stuffi
I like the idea and especially the fact that you need to be a member to use it (even if I don't currently pay for it 😅) because it will help Medium find a sustainable business model with their membership. I think Pocket could have also done that to help people reduce their Pocket queue. You can already listen to articles saved by using IOS and Android TTS b… See more
Ilan Peer@ilan_peer · www
I like it a lot. One day even machines will read Medium stories :)
Angela Bowman@angelabdesign
Is there a story I can listen to for free? Before I decide to subscribe, I'd really like to hear an example.
LekanB@lekanb · Founder @ SpaceHQ.co
I used to use an old app called GeckoVoice. It was Amazing. You all should try VoiceDream. While not the prettiest app... it's amazing and the voice is very pleasant though TTS. Just connect it to your Pocket Account and you are business. Doesn't matter if it's a medium Or NYT article. Voice Dream: Best Text to Speech App via @ProductHunt https://www.product… See more
Benjamin Lim@benjalimm · Finn
This, I would pay for.
Rahul Ramchand@rahulr047 · Botmonster 🔥
Oh more "Stories". Wow.
Aram Eghiazaryan@aram_eghiazaryan · Product Designer
Awesome update! Can't wait to test it.
Sanshiro@sanshiro · CEO from Aloha Creativos
:( what if i have a podcast on medium? check this out guys! http://neox.fm <- This is the podcast on medium O.o can i send you the audio to include or something?