SpokenLayer has announced its expansion into Australia with the launch of SpokenLayer Australia in partnership with Southern Cross Austereo.
SpokenLayer is the US’s leading provider of short-form audio content for voice assistants, smart speakers and podcast platforms. The company specialises in the creation, distribution and monetisation of short-form audio content in partnership with publishers and brands.
The end-to-end solution turns text into human voiced audio which is then distributed to Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and a number of other platforms.
The partnership with SCA will enable SpokenLayer to access SCA’s vast network of professional voices and enables advertisers to access SpokenLayer’s growing network.
SpokenLayer CEO, Andy Lipset, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with SCA as we bring SpokenLayer to Australia and also New Zealand. With digital audio consumption showing massive listenership and smart speaker penetration increasing every quarter, Australasia is a natural place to extend SpokenLayer’s presence to. With SCA’s infrastructure, relationships, and native understanding of audio, coupled with SpokenLayer’s technology and ownership of short form, we know advertisers and publishers are going to find incredible success working with our team there!”
SCA CEO, Grant Blackley, said: “We’re excited to partner with SpokenLayer as it enters the Australian market and SCA has a depth of professional voices across Australia. Audio is an incredibly innovative medium, and with smart speaker ownership growing and Australians spending more time at home, we’re seeing demand for text to voice grow dramatically. We see these text to voice briefings as complementary to our existing assets in podcasting and radio streaming giving advertisers access to a highly engaged and growing digital audience.”
There are more than 5.7 million smart speakers in Australia, which has the greatest concentration per capita globally. Smart speaker consumption has grown by 50% month on month since March this year. According to the SCA, 3.2 million Australians have at least one smart speaker in their home.
SpokenLayer recently launched daily news briefings for five publications as part of a new partnership with Australian Community Media (ACM). The ACM partnership is led by The Canberra Times, and will see SpokenLayer producing and distributing daily briefings for The Ballarat Courier, The Launceston Examiner, The Border Mail and The Illawarra Mercury.
SpokenLayer already partners with leading US publishers such as Hearst, Time and Condé Nast, producing content for more than 200 titles including Techcrunch, Time’s The Brief, The Economist and The Los Angeles Times. The ACM titles will add to SpokenLayer’s growing Australian roster which includes a daily gaming news update from leading gaming publisher Press Start and the Coronavirus Australia Daily Update.
Michael Richardson, SpokenLayer country manager ANZ, said: “There’s a real appetite from our smart speaker partners for human voiced short-form audio content. With consumption exploding in recent months now is the right time for companies to build their audience in audio. Our partnership with SCA will help drive this growth.”
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Top photo: SpokenLayer country manager ANZ Michael Richardson