Originally published at: Listen Later Returns as TidBITS Sponsor - TidBITS
We’re pleased to welcome back Listen Later as a TidBITS sponsor. The text-to-podcast service first sponsored TidBITS when it launched a year ago, and the interest from TidBITS readers helped it become a sustainable business (see “Text-to-Podcast Service Listen Later Sponsoring TidBITS,” 11 March 2024, and “Listen Later Adds Features Requested by TidBITS Readers,” 15 April 2024).
Using Listen Later is straightforward. You email the URL of a Web page to Listen Later, and it converts the text into an episode of your personal podcast feed. The audio quality is extremely high, and Listen Later intelligently removes ads, comments, and other bits of extraneous text. If you wish, Listen Later can even translate the text into any language you prefer for an additional fee. You can listen using your favorite podcast app.
While most people read faster than they can listen to spoken text, Listen Later is beneficial for consuming written content during commutes, workouts, or household chores. It has also become popular among the visually impaired.
Beyond articles available on the Web, Listen Later now supports Google Docs and Dropbox links. Also new is a Web-based upload interface for images, scanned documents, and PDFs that are not easily linked. Listen Later now provides a custom shortcut using Apple’s Shortcuts app that simplifies the conversion of text from paywalled articles that Listen Later would otherwise be unable to access.
Since Listen Later leverages OpenAI’s services for text cleanup and audio generation, it uses a pay-as-you-go business model rather than a subscription. You fund your account by purchasing credits, and each conversion deducts credits from your account based on the length of the text. Listen Later now offers up to 25% extra free credits when you fund your account with $50 or more, and you can earn 20% of every purchase referred friends make in their first year.