How To Add Audio Articles To Medium
A simple guide to sourcing narration and adding audio to your story.
Narrated audio works great on Medium and will help you stand out from the crowd.
Audio for Medium
Adding narrated audio to your Medium stories is easy.
The bigger problem is getting the narration first.
You have 4 options in front of you…
One. Record yourself reading.
Two. Get an AI-powered text to speech robot to do the work for you.
Three. Pay a professional narrator to do the heavy lifting.
Four. The Medium gods reach down to grant you an audio article.
Hallelujah, you’ve been chosen.
Option one. You’re on stage.
Upsides
Performing your work will make you a better storyteller.
Reading aloud improves proofreading and helps you hear repeated sounds.
For the listener, hearing an author read their work feels authentic.
Who better to connect us deeper with the text?
Downsides
That thing when people hate the sound of their voice…
Unfortunately, that barrier is real, and it stops many people from progressing.
Next up… Recording great sounding audio isn’t exactly easy.
It’s possible, but there are lots of steps, equipment needed, and a moderate learning curve.
Yes, you can buy a mic. Edit out some Umms and Ahhs. Then run it through some plugins and share.
But in practice, creating an immersive listening experience takes lots of practice. Both in terms of performance and production quality.
Checkout
- Podcasting kits on Amazon (not an affiliate link)
Option two. Robots do the talking.
Upsides
Modern-day text to speech bots are cheap, fast and there are lots of voices to choose from.
It’s a great option if you have a large amount of content that needs quickly converting to audio.
Downsides
If you are trying to connect to people through your work. Then don’t put a robot in the middle of that relationship.
Great audio creates an intimate and enjoyable listening experience that engages people somewhere deep in our souls.
So far, that’s not something I’ve heard any computer voice manage to do.
I nearly forgot to mention, even the best bots will always glitch out and get something just a bit wrong.
Checkout
- Play.ht — Create Natural Speech using Realistic AI Voices (they even have a Karen!)
- Blogcast — Convert your articles to audio
Option three. Get the pros in.
Upsides
Other than deciding who to work with, there isn’t much to do!
Professional narration services will deliver great-sounding, perfectly performed audio, ready for Medium.
Wondering how your story will sound narrated? My company Poise offers a trial run audio narration to help you decide.
Downsides
Professional narration probably only makes sense if you’re earning an income from your work.
Though if you are, income from affiliate or advertising programs after publishing the narration as a podcast can easily recoup your investment in the service.
Turnaround time depends on length, complexity, and how busy the narrator is.
Proof listening and managing revisions if needed can take some back and forth.
But don’t worry, professional narrators are a pleasure to work with, and correcting minor mistakes is easy without re-recording the whole thing.
Checkout
- Voices — The World’s #1 Marketplace for Voice Over
- BunnyStudio — Your creative project, ready to go
- Poise — Meet a massive new audience
Option four. A gift from the Gods.
If your story reaches a high standard and would work well narrated. Medium reaches out and asks if you would be happy to have your work featured as an audio article. Go you!
Checkout
- Medium Help > About audio narrations
Ok, so how do I choose?
As yourself, what are my goals and priorities?
If it’s time and cost: Choose robots. Or record yourself.
For best performance and production quality. Work with a professional narrator.
For building personal relationships with your readers. Record yourself.
Hoping to be chosen by Medium? Publish awesome content and cross your fingers.
Warning, it’s critical that the narration compliments your story and aligns with the expectations of your readers.
How do I add audio to Medium again?
Now your story is narrated. What comes next?
First, signup for a SoundCloud account.
Their free account gives you 180 minutes of upload space.
- Upload your audio to SoundCloud
- Add a title, genre and description
- Add artwork
- Hit upload
- Once your narration has uploaded
- Hit share
- Copy the share code. NOT the embed code.
- In Medium, create or edit an existing story
- Click the plus button to reveal the add audio button
- Paste the share code from SoundCloud into Medium
- Wait a few seconds and the SoundCloud player will pop into place in your story!
Be happy :)
Wrapping things up
Narrated audio works great on Medium and will help you stand out from the crowd.
Sourcing your narration depends on your goals and priorities.
Make sure your narration compliments your content and aligns with your readers’ expectations.
Uploading your audio to SoundCloud and then sharing to Medium, is free and easy.
I look forward to seeing more Medium stories available as audio.
Andy is the founder of Poise. Poise creates podcasts from any content. Narrated by real voices. Helping you reach a new audience.
