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As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
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Monday Youffraita
Tuesday: bigjacbigjacbigjac
Wednesday Pam from Calif
Thursday art ah zen
Friday FloridaSNMOM
Saturday FloridaSNDad
Sunday loggersbrat
Greetings my friends, and welcome to another Saturday! We have made it through another week, and here we stand, together again.
I am nearly certain that I have written a diary about this in the past. When I first realized that Amazon was experimenting with virtual voice, I made my opinions perfectly clear to anyone who would listen. It bothers me to know to what uses such things can be put, and how easily they can be used as an excuse to put hard working and struggling people out of work. However, there are three sides to every tale, and time has helped me to stumble onto another side of this one. Audiobooks are an expensive market to get into. Audible sets the bar rather high before they will even consider adding your book to their marketplace, however, recently they have begun to allow authors to choose to have their books narrated by virtual voice, at a much lower cost, and while I still fear for the future of something that I see as an art, I must admit that I am grateful to see this offered as an option to authors who would otherwise not be able to afford the expense of having their books turned into audio. One of the authors I have been reading often now in fact, could not have otherwise had the option.
Aside from that, there is the other side, the fact that the use of virtual voice now provides books to Audible’s customers for a much lower price. ($1.99 each from what I have seen.)
So yes, there are positives to the idea, as there are to most, and yes I have begun to read books with virtual voice. However, still I am haunted by the fear of what this will mean for so many of the voices that I have come to love.
~Written in memory of the ever talented Frank Muller, and all the other voices that have gone on before us.~