Some audiobooks and other items of audio content are recorded with only one voice actor. Multiple versions of a particular item of audio content may exist, each vocalized by only one voice actor. The one-voice approach may leave listeners unsatisfied, however. For example, consumers of an audiobook may want the female characters voiced by female voice actors, and male characters voiced by male voice actors. In another example, listeners of an audiobook may want a different voice actor for each character in the audiobook. Neither outcome is possible with only one voice actor.
Recording a new audiobook with multiple voice actors is one option for customizing an item of audio content, but this approach has its limits. It may be impractical or expensive to coordinate multiple voice actors to generate a new recording. Additionally, listeners may want to assign voice actors to characters in different ways, which could necessitate a new recording for each listener. Moreover, listeners may have no interest in an audiobook featuring a disliked voice actor, even if multiple voice actors are already present in the audiobook. These problems and others are not merely limited to audiobooks, but may apply generally to any digital audio content, such as audio content included in songs, videos, movies, television programs, computer and video games, multi-media content, and the like.