What happened to… TikTok text-to-speech voice
Global News
On this episode of "What happened to…?" Erica Vella speaks with the people behind the voices that bring TikTok’s text-to-speech feature to life.
On this episode of What happened to…? Erica Vella speaks with the voices behind TikTok’s text-to-speech feature. She learns about the journey to finding the voice that is now known and loved by millions.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media applications with more than 1 billion people around the world using it each month.
In 2020, Bev Standing was surprised when she heard her voice circulating on TikTok.
“Everyone in my family and friends were going, ‘Hey, that’s you.’,” Standing said. “And I went, ‘this is cool, I’m the text-to-speech voice.’ ”
Standing originally provided her voice for a translation app, which TikTok then used for transcription purposes. Standing said TikTok wasn’t her client, and therefore, wasn’t licensed to use her voice.
In Spring 2021, Standing took legal action against TikTok.
“Either make me your client or take my voice down, was kind of where my head went,” she said. “The bottom line is you can’t use my voice.”
By the end of that year, Standing’s voice was removed from the app. It was quickly replaced with a new voice, dubbed “Jessie,” belonging to former radio host Kat Callaghan.
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