iHeartMedia to Utilize Veritone’s Synthetic Voice Technology to Translate and Produce Podcasts for New Markets

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Leveraging Veritone’s synthetic voice solution, iHeartMedia’s top talent can use their verified synthetic voices to scale content across multiple languages

DENVER & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERI), creator of aiWARE, a hyper-expansive enterprise AI platform, and iHeartMedia (NASDAQ: IHRT), the number one podcast publisher globally according to Podtrac, today announced iHeartMedia’s planned use of Veritone’s synthetic voice solution that allows celebrities, athletes, influencers, broadcasters, podcasters and other talent across numerous industries to securely create and monetize verified synthetic voices that can be transformed into different languages, dialects, accents and more. iHeartMedia will leverage Veritone’s AI platform to make more shows across the iHeart Podcast Network available in multiple languages, helping to expand their podcast market. The first use case is to translate iHeart’s marquee podcasts for Spanish-speaking audiences.

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“We have worked with the iHeartMedia team for more than four years in various aspects of their business, and we are very excited to collaborate on expanding their podcast audience and unlocking new revenue streams for the broadcast industry leader,” said Ryan Steelberg, president of Veritone. “iHeartMedia has always been a pioneer of innovation, and now with the power of Veritone’s synthetic voice solution, iHeartMedia will not only be able to scale to new markets with localized language translations but retain the brand value of their top talent’s voice–which is fundamental in podcasting. We are also partnering to develop synthetic voices for advertising and engaging content while reducing time-to-market and production costs for radio, podcasting and the metaverse.”

In addition to a self-serve application for voice projects leveraging stock voices, Veritone’s synthetic voice solution offers custom synthetic voice cloning that takes a professional approach and works with clients to acquire the necessary training data to create hyper-realistic custom voice clones. The solution can also secure the approvals necessary to create the cloned voice as well as approvals required to use the voice appropriately. Additionally, this new technology will offer increased revenue streams for the branded synthetic voice.

“With the hyper-growth of our podcast network over the past decade, we are always looking for what is new and next in the medium, too – and Veritone’s synthetic voice solution is a great example of that,” said Conal Byrne, chief executive officer at iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. “Being able to easily offer our podcasts in other languages, in the talents’ unique style, will be an awesome and innovative way to grow market share in the global marketplace.”

Veritone’s synthetic voice solution allows iHeartMedia the opportunity to reach new audiences at scale with their current top podcast talent. With no additional studio time, voice talent can authorize Veritone’s synthetic voice solution to automatically produce more podcasts, advertisements, and additional audio in multiple languages with the same energy, cadence and uniqueness of top talent.

To learn more about Veritone’s synthetic voice solution, visit https://www.veritone.com/solutions/voice-cloning/ and sign up for a free trial to explore stock voices.

About iHeartMedia

iHeartMedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: IHRT) is the leading audio media company in America, reaching over 90% of Americans every month. iHeart’s broadcast radio assets alone have more consumer reach in the U.S. than any other media outlet; twice the reach of the next largest broadcast radio company; and over four times the ad-enabled reach of the largest digital-only audio service. iHeart is the largest podcast publisher according to Podtrac, with more downloads than the next four podcast publishers combined, and has the number one social footprint among audio players, with seven times more followers than the next audio media brand, and the only fully integrated audio ad tech solution across broadcast, streaming and podcasts. The company continues to leverage its strong audience connection and unparalleled consumer reach to build new platforms, products and services. Visit iHeartMedia.com for more company information.

About Veritone

Veritone (NASDAQ: VERI) is a leader in enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) software and solutions. Serving organizations in both commercial and regulated sectors, Veritone’s software, services, and industry applications accelerate and maximize digital migration, empowering the largest and most recognizable brands in the world to run more efficiently, accelerate decision making and increase profitability. Veritone’s hyper-expansive Enterprise AI platform, aiWARE™, orchestrates an ever-growing ecosystem of machine learning models to transform audio, video and other data sources into actionable intelligence. Through professional and managed services, as well as its robust partner ecosystem, Veritone develops and builds AI solutions that solve the problems of today and tomorrow.

To learn more, visit Veritone.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “estimate” or “continue” or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Assumptions relating to the foregoing involve judgments and risks with respect to various matters which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are beyond the control of Veritone. Certain of such judgments and risks are discussed in Veritone’s SEC filings. Although Veritone believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in forward-looking statements will be realized. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking information included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by Veritone or any other person that their objectives or plans will be achieved. Veritone undertakes no obligation to revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

iHeartMedia Media Contact:
Jenn Powers
jennpowers@iheartmedia.com

Veritone Media Contact:
Valerie Christopherson or Lora Wilson
Global Results Comms (GRC)
+1 949 608 0276
Veritone@globalresultspr.com

Veritone Public Relations:
Kristi Labrum
klabrum@veritone.com

Source: Veritone, Inc.

Released February 17, 2022