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ElevenLabs Drops Free 13-Hour Odyssey Audiobook Featuring Michael Caine

6/23/2026

Summary

ElevenLabs Releases Odyssey

ElevenLabs released a free 13-hour AI-generated audiobook of Homer’s Odyssey featuring a Michael Caine voice clone that the 93-year-old actor authorized in November 2025.
The project used Caine’s licensed AI voice, 20 other AI-generated voices, AI sound effects, music, and Bryant’s 1870s translation, with four producers completing it in six weeks.
ElevenLabs, valued at $11 billion, timed the release to ride interest in Christopher Nolan’s July 17, 2026 film adaptation of The Odyssey.

Summary

ElevenLabs Licenses Voices

ElevenLabs' Iconic Marketplace pays voice owners each time their licensed digital voice is used.
The firm plans to let users create audiobooks with licensed characters from Hasbro, Stan Lee and other IP holders.
Executives say AI enables small teams to produce large-scale audiobooks at costs prohibitive for traditional publishers.
Madeline Shue said a six-week multilingual, immersive production would have been impossible with conventional methods.

History

Historical Context

By the late 1990s broadband, MP3 compression and Audible’s 1997 digital player (holding two hours of audio) and 1998 website enabled the first mass-market digital audiobook sales, shifting listeners from cassettes to instant downloads. This early model underpins today’s AI-driven narration services, which extend the same digital distribution approach pioneered by Audible and later expanded by firms such as LibriVox.

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ElevenLabs Releases Odyssey

ElevenLabs released a free 13-hour AI-generated audiobook of Homer’s Odyssey featuring a Michael Caine voice clone that the 93-year-old actor authorized in November 2025.
The project used Caine’s licensed AI voice, 20 other AI-generated voices, AI sound effects, music, and Bryant’s 1870s translation, with four producers completing it in six weeks.
ElevenLabs, valued at $11 billion, timed the release to ride interest in Christopher Nolan’s July 17, 2026 film adaptation of The Odyssey.

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